


Eggs Benedict for Breakfast

by dyllpickless



Series: Diego, Eudora, and Rosa Patch [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Amnesia, Dave Katz Speaks Hebrew, Diego Hargreeves Speaks Spanish, F/M, Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, Jewish Dave (Umbrella Academy), Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Whump, Luther Hargreeves Does His Best, M/M, No Incest, Pansexual Klaus Hargreeves, Post-Season/Series 01 AU, Stuttering Diego Hargreeves, Time Travel, Trans Diego Hargreeves, nonbinary klaus hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:00:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21626449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyllpickless/pseuds/dyllpickless
Summary: “Do I really have amnesia?”Luther sighed. “Yeah.”-OR-In which Klaus hits his head hard enough to get retroactive amnesia, and Luther does what he thinks is best.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Dave/Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch, Klaus Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Vanya Hargreeves/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Diego, Eudora, and Rosa Patch [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1561180
Comments: 231
Kudos: 468





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Klaus talks on the phone and Luther tells a white lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, here we go! Before we start, here are some important things about the AU: Dave has been taken to 2019, this is a "second time around" fic, which means they went back in time and relived their lives a second time, Luther has a human body, Eudora and Grace are alive, Allison has Claire, Klaus is sober, and Pogo and Sir Reginald are both dead.

“Oh, but Davey,” Klaus whined, bouncing on his feet and hanging onto the phone that was pressed against his ear. “I was so excited to see you.”

“I know, _neshama sheli._ I’m so sorry. Sergeant Torres couldn’t make it, so it’ll just be me in charge of these new recruits until they can get somebody else out here.”

Klaus sniffed and slid down the wall until his knees were tucked up beneath his chin. “So does this mean I won’t be able to see you until January?”

The other’s wince was audible, even over the phone. “That’s what it’s starting to look like.” There was a pause. “But, hey. That’s just ten more weeks, and once this round of recruits is done, I’ll be on the plane before you can say ‘Drill Sergeant Dave Katz,’ alright?”

“Okay.” He knew Dave could hear the tears in his voice, but he couldn’t stop it. “Okay. Ten weeks. And you’ll still call me every Sunday, right?”

“Of course, doll.”

“How much time do we have left until you have to go?”

“About ten more minutes,” Dave replied apologetically. “How about you tell me about how your powers are coming along?”

“Oh,” Klaus wiped his tears away and smiled. “Well, a few days ago I held Ben corporeal for a whole 48 hours until he finally flickered away and vanished. But I even held it up while I was asleep!”

“Wow! You’re really improving! What about the whole levitation thing? Figured that out yet?”

“Not yet,” he said, tilting his head to the side and twisting a corner of his mouth in confusion. “I’m still practicing, though. It’s really hard to control.”

“I have complete faith that you will get the hang of it. You’re incredibly talented and way smarter than you let yourself realize.”

“Stop it, you’re making me blush.” By that point, Klaus was smiling ear to ear. “Hey, how’s the basic training going? Is it everything you hoped and dreamed of? Is it worth the raise?”

“Honey, you know I’m not doing it for the money,” Dave laughed. “Last round of recruits were a bunch of knuckleheads. Remember how I was telling you about Green?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, his family came up to me at graduation—and his mom is the same way!” Klaus gasped and let out a shocked laugh. “Yeah! She just would not shut up about the big mansion they live in, with their five horses and three dogs and whatever else it was. I swear, I had half a mind to make her drop and give me a hundred.”

“What did you do?”

“I stood there and listened! What else could I have done?”

Klaus chuckled. “Well, you could have walked away.” There was silence on the other end, which only made Klaus laugh harder. “Davey, I thought the military was supposed to toughen you up! But here you are, too polite to walk away from some annoying rich lady. You’re so nice to everybody,” he teased.

“Hey, there,” Dave said, copying Klaus’ tone, “you’re one to talk. It was you that apologized to the waitress when she spilled your coffee on you on our first real date in 2019.”

Klaus gasped. “You promised you wouldn’t bring it up again!”

“Oops,” Dave laughed. There was a comfortable pause in the conversation as the two just sat there, enjoying being connected, even if it was just through the phone wires. “Admit it, you love me because I’m so nice to everybody.”

Klaus hummed, pretending to mull it over. “Maybe. But I also love you because you’re a giant nerd.”

“Am not!”

“Are too! Don’t think I didn’t notice you and Diego and Ben quoting _Lord of the Rings_ last time you were here! You three are massive nerds, but you especially. I mean, at least they didn’t show up to the present when they were 29! How many times have you seen those movies anyway?”

Dave moaned, “I can’t believe I’m being bullied by my own fiancé,” making Klaus giggle.

“Well, that’s not the only reason why I love you, you know.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. You’re hot as fuck.”

Dave let out a sharp, surprised laugh. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

They went on like that, comfortably bantering back and forth like they were in the same room—like there weren’t all those miles keeping them apart. It ended all too soon, with a sad sigh from Dave. “Time’s up, sweetheart. I have to go to a meeting.”

The smile faded from Klaus’ lips. “Oh.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “It’s not your fault.” Despite his words, he still felt sick, though there was no way of telling if he was going to throw up or just cry. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Talk to you Sunday?”

“Yeah.”

“ _Ani met alecha._ ”

Klaus giggled softly, though it was more sad than anything. “I still don’t know what that means, but I love you too.”

“Bye, doll.”

“Bye.”

The sound of the line disconnecting rang through Klaus’ ears. He pressed a hand to his mouth to muffle a sob, letting the phone receiver slip from his fingers and dangle freely from the cord. It just wasn’t _fair._ He hadn’t seen Dave in two years, and now he was going to have to wait _another_ ten weeks.

_It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not—_

“Klaus? Where are you?”

Klaus groaned and curled in tighter on himself, leaning against the wall and letting the phone dangle in front of him. He wasn’t in the mood to be around anybody at the moment. Maybe if he stayed really still, Luther wouldn’t see him.

“Oh, there you are! It’s time for your training; are you ready?”

_Fuck._

“No,” Klaus moaned. “Let’s do it tomorrow.”

Luther tilted his head and placed his hands on his narrow hips. “Come on,” he said gently. “We’ve talked about this. You need to keep to a schedule or else you’ll fall back into… bad habits.”

“I know,” Klaus sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Sorry.” He took Luther’s extended hand and used it to pull himself to his feet.

“Is everything alright?” Ben asked, walking into the room.

Klaus’ face twisted and he started crying again. “Dave isn’t coming back for another ten weeks.”

“Ten weeks?” Luther grunted. “I thought he was coming this weekend.”

“Something came up and now he can’t leave.”

“Oh.” Luther frowned for a moment, seemingly scrambling for some way to comfort Klaus. “Do you want a hug?”

He didn’t care how childish his nod was. Klaus pressed his face into Luther’s chest and let himself get enveloped by his taller brother’s arms. Ben was quick to join, glad he was corporeal at the moment. “Thank you,” Klaus mumbled, his voice muffled in Luther’s shirt. When they all finally pulled apart, Klaus laughed at himself. “I got your shirt wet.”

Luther looked down and frowned. “I don’t care about that.”

“Can we go train now?” Klaus needed a distraction—one that didn’t involve sticking himself with a needle or smoking something, or—

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder, snapping him out of the downward spiral of thought. “Of course. Let’s go. Now, I’m thinking that you should practice controlling some of your levitation today. You’ve made a lot of improvements with the conjuring ghosts side of things but…” He trailed off with a wince, not wanting to sound rude.

“My floatiness is about as graceful as a baby deer trying to sprint for the first time?” Klaus provided helpfully.

Luther laughed. “That’s certainly one way to put it.”

They reached the foyer—which was deemed the safest place to practice Klaus’ levitation because there was the fewest number of sharp and pointy things on which Klaus could accidentally impale himself—and Klaus began stretching like he was preparing to run a marathon. Of course, he didn’t need to stretch, but it was certainly fun, and he didn’t want to lose all the flexibility he had.

“Ready?” Luther asked, sounding tired. Klaus didn’t fall for it, though, because he knew his brother was just teasing.

“Almost!” With a deep breath, Klaus hoisted his foot up and hooked it behind his neck. “Gotta stay nimble, you know.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” Luther said, his eyebrows up high near his hairline. “How in the world can you just… do that?”

“Natural-born talent, baby.” With that, his other foot joined the first, making Klaus look a lot like a pretzel.

“It looks like it hurts.”

Klaus would have shrugged if he could. “It does if I don’t keep doing it.”

“What’s the point?”

“Looking cool as fuck,” Klaus replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Also, being this flexible gets pretty handy in—”

“Stop,” Ben gagged.

Klaus giggled and held the position for a few more seconds before unhooking his legs and springing to his feet. “Ready!”

Luther laughed and shook his head. “Alright, let’s get to it. How about you…” he hummed and looked around before continuing, “try and levitate a foot above the ground for a minute? Just as a warm up.”

“Yeah!”

Klaus slowly exhaled as his eyes fell shut. Shaking out his limbs and rolling his neck, he willed himself to clear his mind and relax. Within a few moments, he was successfully pushing all of his thoughts away. Gone was the sound of Dave’s voice, made slightly tinny by the phone speaker; the feeling of despair at the thought that he would have to wait even longer to see his fiancé; the smell of Grace’s freshly made bacon; the sight of Luther’s proud, brotherly smile. It was just blank. With the absence of thought came a feeling of lightness, and soon Klaus could feel his feet leave the ground.

“Open your eyes, Klaus,” Ben said softly.

“Oh, right.” His eyes creaked open and he looked around to find that he was considerably higher than just one foot off the ground. In fact, he was closer to the bottom of the chandelier. “Oh,” he whispered. “Shit.”

“Come back down, we aren’t going up that far yet,” Luther warned.

He nodded and closed his eyes again, trying to will himself to lower to the ground. When he opened his eyes, his stomach lurched. “Uh…” he uttered haltingly. “It won’t let me go down.”

Luther frowned and shifted his weight. “Er, what do you usually do when you want to get down?”

“I don’t know, it usually just happens,” Klaus said, his voice pitching up in panic as he rose even higher—his hair brushing against the ceiling.

Ben stepped forward on shaky feet. “Okay, Klaus, calm down.”

“I am calm!” he hissed.

“You just need to—”

In that moment, four things happened. First, Klaus let out a high-pitched squeal, one that sounded rather like a dog whose tail had just been stepped on. Second, Luther gasped and surged forward, trying to get underneath his floating (read: struggling) sibling. Third, Ben suddenly vanished from the physical world, making him as unable to help as any other non-corporeal ghost. Fourth, whatever had been dangling Klaus in the air decided to drop him.

It was like the scene was in slow motion—a car crash that Luther and Ben couldn’t look away from and Klaus couldn’t get out of. He tilted in the air as he fell. There was a crack and then a thud: Klaus’ head bounced off the bannister before he fell in a crumpled heap to the ground, looking more like a pile of discarded clothes than a human being.

Within an instant, Luther was at his side. “Shit, Klaus, are you okay?”

“Oh my god, Klaus,” Ben gasped and surged forward. His hand went through Klaus’ shoulder.

When there wasn’t a reply, Luther gently smacked the side of his pale sibling’s face.

Nothing.

“Mom! I need your help!”

Quick footsteps echoed through the mansion as Grace approached. “Oh dear,” she hissed sympathetically, kneeling at Klaus’ side to better assess the situation. “What happened?”

“He was levitating and then he fell. I think he hit his head.”

Grace nodded and straightened up. “I’ll need you to carry him to the infirmary. Don’t jostle him around too much.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Ben hissed, though nobody could hear him.

Luther carefully scooped Klaus up in his arms, cradling his head so it wouldn’t move as they made their way to the infirmary. He couldn’t help but stare down at his sibling’s slack face. He did this.

When they finally made it to the infirmary, Grace had Luther lay Klaus in a hospital bed. He stepped away as she quickly moved around, hooking him up to machines to figure out what was going on. The only thing Luther could decipher was the heart monitor. The heartbeat was steady, so he supposed everything would be alright— _right?_

After what seemed like ages, Grace stopped, seeming satisfied. “What?” Luther asked from where he was standing to the side. “Is he going to be okay?”

Grace pressed her lips together and sighed, brushing a curl out of Klaus’ face. “Brain injuries are difficult. Right now he seems to be in a coma. He could wake up any second, or he could never wake up. And if he does wake up… well, there’s no way of knowing what side effects he could experience.”

“Oh.” He was going to throw up.

“I left a few things out in the living room before Klaus took a spill,” Grace sighed and stepped back. “Will you keep an eye on him for me while I step out to clean it up?”

“Of course, Mom.”

With a gentle smile, she patted Luther’s head and left the infirmary. Thinking he was alone, Luther resorted to staring at his sibling, who looked far too small in the hospital bed.

 _When did he get so tiny?_ The first time around, they had let Klaus slip away into homelessness on the streets, so it wasn’t so out of place for him to be stick thin—emaciated. But this time? They were supposed to have fixed everything. Klaus stayed home with Luther and Grace (and Ben). He got food and a warm, dry place to sleep. But why was he still so damn small? It was like at any second Klaus would get swallowed whole by the scratchy blankets. Luther picked up a trashcan and moved it close, his stomach rolling.

Things were supposed to be good. But right at that moment, it felt anything but, and Luther was going to be sick.

* * *

It took two days, seven hours, and fifty-three minutes for Klaus to wake up. In that time, the only person Luther talked to was Grace. When his eyes finally opened up, Luther was asleep.

“Hello?”

Luther took a deep breath, his eyes opening. Instantly, his face broke into a huge grin. “You’re up!”

Klaus’ facial expression didn’t change. “Who are you?”

“I—” He blinked quickly and leaned back. “Did you—are you joking?”

“No?” His head tilted to the right.

“Uh… Mom?”

A few moments of awkward silence passed before Grace popped her head in. “Yes, Lu—Oh! Klaus! I see that you’re awake! How are you feeling?”

“I… Who’s Klaus?”

“Oh dear,” Grace sighed and stepped over to check all of the readings on Klaus.

“What is going on?”

“Klaus…” Luther started hesitantly. “You hit your head a few days ago and went into a coma.” There wasn’t even a flicker of recognition. “I’m Luther, your brother, and this is our mom.” He motioned to Grace, who smiled gently.

“It’s nice to see that you’ve woken up. I was starting to get worried.”

“How are you my mom?” Klaus was pressed against the pillow. “You’re too young.”

She chuckled and laid a hand on Klaus’ hair. “You’re so kind, sweetie. I’m a robot, I don’t age.”

“Oh.” He frowned and pondered that for a moment. “And, no offense, but you look nothing like me,” he told Luther.

“We’re adopted. See?” He rolled up his sleeve to reveal the umbrella tattoo on the inside of his forearm. Then, he motioned to Klaus’ bare arm, which had the same.

“Oh.”

Something was… odd about Klaus. Even sober, he was usually jittery, jumpy, and frantic at each turn. But now, he was completely calm—there was no sign of his previous addiction, or his sober antics. Luther watched Klaus interact with Grace for a few moments before it hit him. _The pain medicine I gave him._

“This might sound odd,” Luther started cautiously, “but how many people are in the room right now?”

Klaus raised an eyebrow. “Three? You, me, and… Mom. Why?”

“Nothing.”

_No ghosts?_

It wasn’t just that, though. It seemed like he didn’t remember ever seeing them. Klaus may have never told Luther much about the ghosts—they weren’t exactly the closest siblings—but he knew enough to understand that they were traumatizing enough to drive him to drugs for over a decade. But no ghosts? At all?

“Luther, may I speak with you outside?” Grace’s honey-sweet voice was accompanied by a smile, no matter what weight her words may carry.

“Uh, yeah, sure. I’ll be right back, little man.” Luther pushed himself up out of the chair—suddenly grateful for his narrower figure that allowed for easy maneuvering—and followed his mom out into the hallway. “What’s up?”

“You’re going to have to talk to your siblings about this. They’ll want to know that Klaus is okay.”

He knew she was right, but that didn’t mean he liked it at all. “Alright,” he sighed. “Keep an eye on Klaus, will you?”

“Of course,” Grace said. She stepped forward and placed a gentle kiss on Luther’s cheek before going back into the infirmary, leaving Luther alone to call all of his siblings. _Great._

His instinct was to call Allison first. She always seemed to have a calming effect on Luther; they’d been fast friends since they were kids. But this was about Klaus, and Klaus was closest with Diego, which meant he should be the first to know.

All of the siblings’ phone numbers were written in pink pen on an index card that was taped on the wall next to the phone. It was more for show, since they knew each other’s numbers by heart. On habit, Luther still glanced at it as he dialed the number to Diego’s house.

After three rings, it picked up.

“I know you aren’t eating any of those chocolate chips!”

There was a faint, high-pitched laugh on the other end of the line.

“Diego?”

“Yeah, sorry, ‘Dora keeps stealing chocolate chips from our cookies.” He chuckled, and Luther could feel his heart swell. His brother was living a good, happy life. Just as he deserved. “What’s up?”

“Oh, uh…” Suddenly, all Luther wanted to do was preserve that happiness. “Klaus took a bit of a fall. He’s a bit banged up, but he should be fine.”

Diego scoffed lightheartedly. “Is that all? He falls, like, all of the time.”

“Yeah, I know,” Luther sighed and shifted his weight. “I’m not sure why I called, actually.”

There was a pause before Diego spoke again. “How are things going? Besides Klaus being _un torpe._ ”

“A…?”

“Clumsy person,” he translated.

“Oh. Well, things are going great. Klaus’ powers are improving greatly, and I think he and Mom are starting to bond over knitting and sewing and stuff.”

“Oh, good! Well, hey, I have to go. Eudora and I are baking and she just threw a handful of flour at me.” He adopted a sarcastically serious tone. “So now I must go fight in World War III. Wish me luck.”

Luther snorted. “Good luck. Tell Eudora I say hello.”

“I will.” With that, the line went dead, leaving a smile on Luther’s lips.

The rest of the conversations went just about the same way: Luther chickened out and didn’t tell them what actually happened. After he hung up on Vanya and Five, he leaned against the wall and let out a slow breath. It’s fine, he reassured himself. _By the time they find out about what happened, Klaus will be all better. There’s no reason to worry them._

He raked his hand through his hair and nodded. _It’ll be fine._

* * *

Ben was pacing back and forth like a caged tiger, glancing at his sibling as often as he could. This was new. It was _bad._ When Klaus woke up, Ben had immediately started trying to talk to him, but he didn’t even get so much as a bat of an eye. It was like he just couldn’t see him.

While Klaus was out, Luther slipped him some pain medicine, but Ben didn’t think too much of it. He explained to Ben as he was doing it that it was to prevent a massive headache once Klaus finally woke up. Ben hadn’t been too worried. It was supposed to just be normal painkillers. But Klaus couldn’t see Ben.

This wasn’t normal.

“Klaus,” Ben tried again. When he didn’t get a response, he repeated himself but louder. “Klaus! Klaus, Jesus Christ, answer me! Look at me!”

He reached out to bang against the door with his fist, but it just fell through. _Great,_ he thought. _I’m not corporeal, either._ He sighed and sat on his perch on top of the cabinet. _Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next Saturday, when Klaus doesn't talk about pigeons and Luther mispronounces the word "cishet."
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 Comments and kudos are much appreciated!
> 
> Author's Note
> 
>   * Neshama sheli = Literally means "my soul" in Hebrew
>   * Ani met alecha = Literally means "I'm dead about you" which basically means "I'm crazy about you" in Hebrew
>   * I want to give a quick shout out to not only @tua-as-vines as Tumblr (my amazing tumblr friend) but also the wonderful people in the TUA Discord. Love you guys so so much.
>   * I should be able to post a chapter every Saturday, so definitely keep an eye out for that!
> 



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Klaus doesn’t talk about pigeons and Luther mispronounces the word “cishet."

“Hey, Luther?”

The quiet, almost tentative, voice pulled Luther out of the fitful sleep he was in. “Yeah?” he slurred, picking his head up from where it rested on the uncomfortable back of the stiff chair in which he was curled up.

“Do I really have amnesia?”

“Yep.” There wasn’t really much else to say about that.

“Oh.” Klaus looked down at the blanket that was covering him and frowned. “Hey, could you pass me the… uh…”

Luther’s eyes narrowed slightly, following Klaus’ line of vision—which was directed towards the box of tissues on the table just out of his sibling’s reach. Still, though, it was odd that he wouldn’t just say it. “The what?” he asked, playing dumb.

“Those,” he said, gesturing towards the box.

“You’re going to have to be more specific; there are a lot of things over here.”

Klaus fell silent, a strained look on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

The response was so quiet it might as well have been a slight exhalation of air. “I don’t know what they’re called.” He shrunk impossibly smaller when he noticed the frown on Luther’s face. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no,” he said quickly, “I… it’s fine. They’re tissues. Here.” He passed him the box with a smile.

“Thank you,” Klaus whispered and gently wiped at his nose.

“Do you know what this is?” Luther asked, motioning towards the lamp that also sat on the table.

Klaus pressed his lips together and shook his head.

“Alright. That’s okay.” He tried sending Klaus a reassuring smile. “Can you read this?” He held up a book.

“Yeah, I can.”

Luther sighed. “That’s good. Okay, we’ll work this out. I’ll help you.”

Klaus nodded, though he looked like he was close to tears.

* * *

Grace let Klaus take his first steps a few days later. Thankfully, other than a bit of light dizziness at first, there wasn’t a single issue with Klaus’ movement. It was almost like whatever trauma his brain went through had only affected his old memories. Grace noticed that, and decided to let him out of the infirmary a few hours later.

He kept a tight grip on Luther’s arm as they walked through the house, though Luther suspected it was because he was overwhelmed and afraid of getting lost than anything. He gaped at the taxidermy animals and the trophies and framed portraits that littered the house, and Luther made sure to answer all of his questions. 

“What’s that?”

“That’s a boar’s head.”

“Who are they?”

“That’s you, me, and the rest of our siblings when we were little. Minus Vanya. She’s not in any of these.”

“Why not?”

“Er, she didn’t want to be.”

“Oh.” Klaus frowned, but didn’t question it, chalking it up to some unspoken social thing he must have forgotten. “What are their names?”

Luther rattled off the names, pointing to each one.

“Were we close as kids?”

Luther only shrugged. “We’re closer now than we were then.”

Klaus nodded. “Have you told them about what happened to me?”

“No,” Luther said, shaking his head and shifting his weight. “I didn’t want to worry them.”

“That makes sense. I don’t want them to be worried about me.” He trailed off with a slight frown, making Luther’s heart twist. He knew that Klaus had overwhelming empathy, but it wasn’t often that it was on display, since Klaus usually hid it behind jokes and distractions.

Luther pulled Klaus in for a quick hug. “You’re really kind.”

They continued walking through the house, until Klaus stopped them with another question. “What’s that?”

“The bar. But we don’t keep any alcohol there.”

“Why not?”

Luther chewed on his lower lip. “There was a member of the family that used to have some issues with alcohol abuse, so we got rid of all of it.”

Klaus paused and frowned, mulling those words over in his mind. “Well,” he said carefully, “I’m glad our family supported that person.”

Luther tried his best not to feel sick. He couldn’t help but think about how things might have been different if they had done things right the first time around. If Klaus never got addicted, the apocalypse never happened. Maybe Luther wouldn’t have spent all those years with the genetically modified body, since he would have never been left alone with Reginald. Sure, Klaus wouldn’t have Dave, but would he be hurt by the absence of a person he never knew existed? Would this have even happened if they were kind to each other the first time?

“Luther?”

He took a quick inhale. “Yeah?” he asked, looking down at his shorter sibling.

“What’s wrong?”

Luther’s heart melted at Klaus’ wide, caring eyes. “Nothing,” he sighed, and smiled reassuringly. He placed a hand on Klaus’ shoulder. “Just thinking.”

Klaus nodded, looking more like an innocent little kid than somebody that’s lived to the age of 29 twice. “Thank you for all of this Luther. For taking care of me and showing me around.”

“Hey, it’s no problem. How about we go grab a bite to eat? I’m sure you’d love some waffles right about now.”

A look of confusion passed over Klaus’ face, but he still nodded. “Alright. Sounds good.”

A few minutes later, Grace gently placed a plate of warm, freshly-made waffles in front of Klaus, who quickly cut off a piece and took a bite. His movements slowed and his facial expression soured. “What is this?” he asked, spitting the waffle back onto his plate.

Luther stared. “What do you mean? It’s a waffle—your favorite food.”

Klaus’ nose wrinkled, though he quickly smoothed it out when he realized Grace was still in the room. “Sorry, Mom, but why would this be my favorite food? It’s… well, it doesn’t really…” He sighed, frustrated at not being able to find the right word. “I don’t really like it. Do you have anything… less like this?”

“How about French Toast?” Luther suggested.

“Sounds fancy,” Klaus said distantly and let Luther take the waffles for himself.

Grace didn’t take too long to make it. Neither her nor Luther would admit it, but they both watched anxiously as Klaus took his first bite. Both their faces fell when he promptly spit it into his napkin.

It took nearly an hour for them to find something that Klaus could stomach. Luther was absolutely baffled. He’d never seen his sibling turn his nose up at any sort of breakfast food, let alone  _ sweet _ breakfast food. But what Klaus had landed on was something Luther would have never guessed: eggs benedict.

In their first childhood, Sir Reginald used to make them eat eggs benedict every Monday morning. Monday mornings were the worst for Klaus, Luther would later find out, because it would be the morning after Klaus would be brought back from his weekly trips to the mausoleum. At the time, Luther thought he was exploring the town, getting high out of his mind and disgracing the family name. He assumed that Klaus throwing up the eggs benedict was him coming down from his cocktail of drugs, when it was actually because he was sick from fear.

Klaus notoriously  _ hated _ eggs benedict, and when he swallowed that first bite of it, Luther almost started crying.  _ Klaus is really gone, isn’t he? _

“What do you think, Klaus?” Grace asked with a warm, gentle smile that didn’t betray how  _ off _ the entire situation was.

“These are delicious, Mom, thank you.”

Grace blinked quickly and folded her hands across her stomach, clearly taken aback. “Well,” she said simply, “I’m glad we found something for you to eat.”

If he noticed how disturbed his family was, Klaus didn’t acknowledge it. He just grinned at Grace and went back to eating.

* * *

Klaus was suddenly a fantastically normal sleeper. He stopped sleeping precariously perched on top of counters and balanced on the backs of couches. Instead, he would go to sleep at ten in his own bedroom and wake up at eight without a single complaint or mention of not sleeping well. It was disturbingly normal.

Luther, of course, still woke up before Klaus did. By the time Klaus made his way downstairs, breakfast would be on the table with a small dixie cup of pain pills next to his glass of juice. He would greet Klaus with a smile and a hug, let out a soft sigh of relief when Klaus took his pills, and then have a nice breakfast with him.

It was odd how much of Klaus seemed to change. For example, he was suddenly completely fine with comfortable silence. It was almost jarring, that first breakfast, when Klaus didn’t immediately launch into a conversation about any random thing that just so happened to pop into Klaus’ mind at that exact second. Gone were the days of choking on his toast at Klaus’ sudden outbursts about which sex positions were preferred in the Edwardian Era, or being completely baffled at the origin of his sibling’s in-depth knowledge about the history of pidgeon-human interaction.

No, most breakfasts were to the tune of gentle scraping of forks against plates. When Klaus did talk, he would either stick to small talk (How did you sleep? Did you dream about anything?) or dive directly into more questions about his own past. 

One morning, Klaus was especially chipper. He sat down at the table across from Luther and dug into his sausage sandwich. A few quiet moments passed, until Klaus set down his food and readjusted himself so he was looking straight at Luther. “Hey, Luther?” (God, Luther missed the nicknames.)

“What’s up, little man?”

“Were we a good family? Were we happy?”

_ Oh. _ In all fairness, the question was bound to come up eventually. Klaus had been branching away from the more “What’s that?” questions and started toeing the line towards more personal questions, but somehow this question had still caught Luther off guard. 

To stall for time as he searched for an answer, Luther finished off the rest of his water. His eyes connected with Klaus’ wide, innocent ones, and Luther could have sworn he heard his own heart shatter within his chest. Up until this point, Klaus had been light and happy. Why did he have to ruin that by telling him what they went through as kids? Maybe that’s why Luther didn’t feel so guilty when he opened his mouth and a lie came past his lips.

“We were very happy. We were a very, very good family. We still are.”

The smile that broke out on Klaus’ face undid any wrong Luther may have committed by lying. “Why were we on all of those magazines and comic books?”

“Dad trained us to be superheroes,” Luther said, trying to keep a steady smile.  _ There’s no going back now. _ “He taught us how to fight bad guys, and everybody loved us for it.”  _ It’s not lying if I just don’t mention the powers, right? _

“Woah!”

“Yeah!” Klaus’ enthusiasm was like that of a little kid on Christmas morning, and it only egged Luther on. “We got really famous and we got on the covers of a bunch of magazines because of it.”

“That’s so cool. So we would just, like, fight the bad guys and save the day?”

“Exactly! Dad trained us martial arts—” Luther waved his arms around in the air and mimed a few moves “—so we could take down even the toughest of bad guys.”

“It’s really cool that Dad let us do that. It’s like a dream come true!”

_ You have no idea. _

* * *

Luther glanced over at Klaus, who was engrossed in a copy of  _ Julius Caesar _ , and decided he would be alright to be left alone for a few minutes. Klaus didn’t even notice when Luther stood up and left the room for the kitchen, for which Luther was grateful.

“Hey, Mom?” he asked, voice quiet enough that Klaus wouldn’t be able to hear him even if he strained his ears.

“Yes, honey?”

“Could you do me a favor?”

“Of course. What do you need?”

Luther shifted his weight and toyed with his hands. “Could you leave telling Klaus about our past to me? I think that should be my job, since I’m his brother and all.”

“Oh, of course, silly,” Grace replied with a bright smile, setting down the towel she was using to dry the dishes. “You two are siblings. I trust you to tell him the right thing.”

Luther shot her a smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

* * *

“Why are all of my clothes like this?”

Luther looked up from his book. “What do you mean?”

“They’re so… bright. Eccentric. Chaotic. Why don’t I have any clothes like yours? Normal, comfortable clothes.”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. You’ve just always liked them.”

Klaus wrinkled his nose. “I guess they’d be alright for some kind of special occasion, but crop tops and skin tight pants and skirts aren’t exactly ideal for just everyday lounging around the house.”

“I mean, you have a point. I’ve always wondered why you dressed like that, but I guess that it’s just who you are—were.”

“Oh.”

“I asked you one time, and you said something about not wanting to be mistaken for being a, er, cee-shet? Cishet? Something like that.”

“What’s that?”

“We’ll have to look it up.”

And they did look it up. Klaus stared at the computer screen with a slight frown on his face, almost like the text wasn’t really registering.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Luther said slowly, gnawing on his lip.

“I just…” Klaus trailed off and sighed. He readjusted how he was sitting, his frown deepening. “I didn’t even think about that.”

“What?”

“Relationships. Who I am. That sort of thing.”

Luther sighed sympathetically, setting a hand on his sibling’s shoulder and pulling him close. “Do you want me to tell you what I know about you from back then? About your gender and sexuality and stuff?”

Klaus shook his head and leaned against Luther. “No, I don’t think so. I just want to focus on rebuilding myself before I worry about that.”

The gnawing thought of Dave buzzed at the back of Luther’s mind like a fly moments from death, but Luther waved it away.  _ This is what Klaus wants. He asked for this. _ He tightened his grip on Klaus and shut his eyes.

* * *

“Why don’t you have any of the things on your skin like I do?”

Luther frowned and looked over at Klaus. “What do you mean?”

“These.” Klaus held up his hands to show up the letters written on his palms. “I have stuff like this all over my body and you only have the umbrella one.”

“Oh.” He chewed on his lip. “They’re tattoos, uh, I’m not sure why you have so many.”

“They’re permanent,” Klaus said, more to himself than to Luther. “I wonder what they mean. They must be important, right?”

_ Fuck. _ Luther nodded. “If you want, we can try and do some research later, so we can see if we can figure anything out about them.”

“Okay,” Klaus said, brightening up a bit.

Luther never did follow through on that. If Klaus noticed, he didn’t say anything. In fact, he never brought up the tattoos again. Luther hoped it was a sign that Klaus was trusting him.

* * *

Luther only realized it was Sunday— _ Dave Day, as Klaus would call it _ —when the phone rang. He and Klaus were on the couch in the living room, watching  _ Finding Nemo _ under a pile of heavy, fuzzy blankets, when the trill broke through the peaceful atmosphere. Seemingly on instinct more than anything else, Klaus peeled himself away from his brother’s side and started walking over to the phone to answer it.

At first, Luther thought nothing of it. He was willing to let Klaus answer, and just have it be some sort of telemarketer. It was only until he was about halfway to the phone that reality struck Luther. It was Dave. And if Klaus talked to Dave, he would immediately know that something was up, and all of the happy things Luther made up would come crashing down and destroy Klaus.  _ I can’t let that happen. _ Within an instant, he was on his feet and running to catch up.

“Don’t answer that!”

Klaus stopped and turned to Luther, slight confusion on his face. “What’s up?”

Luther scrambled for an excuse. “Er, you should let me answer that. It might be one of our siblings, or something, so you shouldn’t… I mean, you don’t want to worry them.”

“Oh.” Klaus nodded and stepped back so Luther could pass. “That makes sense. Don’t tell them anything’s wrong, okay?”

Luther smiled and tousled Klaus’ hair. “I won’t. You go back and keep our spot warm. Don’t eat all the popcorn.”

“Alright,” Klaus chirped, and skipped back to the living room.

Luther could barely muffle his sigh of relief as he walked over to the phone. “Hargreeves house,” he said like he didn’t know exactly who was calling at 9 PM on a Sunday.

“Luther? It’s me, Dave. Where’s Klaus?”

He licked his lips and shifted his weight. “He can’t come to the phone right now,” Luther forced out, wincing right as the words left his mouth.

“W-What? W—Is he okay?”

“Oh, yeah, of course. He’s just a little busy. In—He’s in the bath. Right now. So he can’t come to the phone.”

Luther could almost picture the frown on the other man’s face. “Oh. That’s weird. He always makes sure we can talk on Sundays. That’s… Sundays are our days.”

He nearly collapsed at the shame that weighed down his chest. “Yeah, sorry. I guess time just escaped him. You know how he gets sometimes, especially when he takes baths. I was just about to go check in on him, because it’s been a few hours.”

“Oh. Yeah, definitely.”

Luther sucked at his teeth. “Sorry.”

“I have to go, it’s almost time for me to call the recruits to the line.”

“Oh, yeah, for sure.” He closed his eyes and prayed for Dave to just hang up already.

“Could you tell him that I’m sorry I missed him? And that I love him. A lot. And I’ll be home soon. Just nine more weeks.”

“Of course.”

“Thanks.”

The line went dead, and Luther immediately fell against the wall with a massive sigh. “Fuck,” he sighed.

* * *

Over time, Klaus stopped getting up to answer the phone. Every time he tried, Luther rushed forward, frantically telling him not to touch the phone. Eventually, Klaus stopped trying. Dave didn’t. Every Sunday, Dave called, and every Sunday, Luther told him Klaus couldn’t make it. But Dave never lost hope. Each time Luther picked up the phone, he could hear that hope on the other end that  _ this _ time it would be Klaus holding the receiver.

A couple months after the initial accident (just one and a half weeks until Dave comes back,  _ dear God what am I going to do? _ ), the phone rang. Klaus stayed quietly tucked into an armchair, where he was happily reading a book (because apparently he could sit still long enough to do that now), and let Luther answer it. On his way to the phone, Luther pushed his hand through Klaus’ hair, affectionately messing up his curls.

“Hello?” Luther answered, realizing they should probably get more than one phone in the house.

“Hey Luther!” Allison chirped on the other line. “So, Vanya and I were talking, and we think that we should start family dinners again. It would be nice to see you and Klaus more often.”

Luther’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Sure! Sounds fun!” His voice sounded almost like a surprised squeak, though it was too deep a timbre for that.

“Great! How’s tomorrow? School should be out for Claire and Rosa, so everybody will be able to come.”

“Tomorrow?”  _ Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. _ “Sounds fine.”

“Oh, good. I’m so excited to see you guys! I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“We all went out to Griddy’s a few weeks ago,” Luther chuckled, though he understood what Allison was saying. He would be ready and willing to spend as much time as possible, if he wasn’t trying to hide a massive secret from them at the moment.

“That was, like, three months ago.”

“Oh.”

Allison’s laugh was still enough to brighten a room. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Tell Klaus to dress in his best, of course. Oh! And we’ll be cooking so tell Mom not to worry.”

“Of course,” Luther said.

“Bye!”

“B—Wait!”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think it would be great if you guys brought up powers or Dave.”

“Oh. Why? Is everything okay? They aren’t breaking up, are they?”

“No, not at all,” Luther rushed. “It’s just that Dave has to stay on base for ten more weeks and Klaus is really upset about it. Plus, he’s really stressed about not being able to levitate either, so it’s best if you just don’t mention them at all. Tell Five especially: no teleporting or talking about his true age. Anything about any of our powers really upsets him.”

Allison clicked her tongue sympathetically. “That’s too bad.”

“Yeah. And he really wore himself out, so he can’t summon Ben right now. He’s also stressed about that, so you shouldn’t even ask about Ben. Talk about it only if Klaus brings it up.”

“Aw. Ben will be missed.”

“I know,” Luther said, trying to not sound as panicked as he felt. “Would you mind passing this on to the others?”

“Of course, I’ll be sure to tell them.”

“Thank you so much.”

“No problem! Give Klaus a hug for me, okay?”

Luther smiled. “You got it, boss. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye!”

_ Click. _

“Fuck,” Luther sighed.

* * *

“Klaus, I need you to  _ listen _ to me,” Ben pleaded, standing halfway between Luther and the person he was shouting at. “Stop taking the pills Luther’s giving you. I need you to come back!”

In a flurry of frustration, Ben ran over and tried to pull the book Klaus was reading out of his hand, like that would get him to  _ pay attention to him, goddamnit. _ His hand went through the book and the other person didn’t even so much as shiver. “Luther is lying to you!” he cried.

Ben was helpless against the tears that threatened to spill down his cheeks.  _ “Klaus!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Saturday: Grace is smarter than she looks and Diego throws a meatball at Five.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 Comments and kudos are much appreciated!
> 
> Big thank you to @seven-misfits on Tumblr for beta-ing this!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Grace is smarter than she looks and Diego throws a meatball at Five.

Like usual, Luther made it to the breakfast table before Klaus did. What wasn’t usual was the facial expression Grace wore, her crossed arms, and the way her fingers curled around the spatula like it was a weapon.

“Uh, hey Mom. What’s up?” Luther asked, keeping his eye on her as he slowly lowered himself into the seat.

“You’ve been giving Klaus pills, haven’t you?”

The orange juice that Luther was drinking suddenly went down the wrong pipe and he coughed, splashing orange juice all down his front. “What?” he croaked as he wiped his face down with a napkin.

“I’ve seen you giving Klaus pills. The kind that were locked in the cabinet in the infirmary for emergencies only.”

Luther swallowed harshly, feeling the blood drain out of his face. “This  _ is _ an emergency,” he eventually managed to say. “Klaus needs those pills.”

Grace hummed and turned to set the spatula on the counter. “His powers aren’t working anymore,” she commented.

“I know,” Luther said, his voice tight and stressed. “It’s better that way.”

Grace turned back, frowning. “Why would that—”

“Klaus is already dealing with so much,” Luther jumped in. “He has to relearn his whole life and figure out who he is.”

“Yes, but—”

“And you saw how much his powers harmed him even when he remembered everything about his life. Think about what it would be like for him if he woke up, having no idea about anything in the world, while also having to deal with ghosts screaming at him nonstop. It would destroy him.”

“Luther—”

“Mom,” Luther said sternly, fixing his gaze on his mother, who seemed to wilt slightly. “Your coding dictates that you need to keep us safe no matter what, right?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “These pills keep Klaus safe. And therefore you have to let me give them to him. Klaus needs those pills.”

Grace’s face relaxed for a moment, before a bright smile took over. “You’re right, Luther. I was being so silly. I’m sorry about that.”

Luther sighed in relief. “It’s alright, Mom.”

* * *

“Our siblings are coming over today,” Luther informed Klaus after he sat down at the table and started eating.

Klaus stopped, the eggs benedict hanging off the edge of his fork. “What?”

“Yeah, for dinner.” Luther pressed his lips together. “They still don’t know about your amnesia—”

“Because we didn’t want to worry them,” Klaus interrupted.

“Yep. Do you want to tell them at dinner?”

Klaus chewed on his lip and set his fork down, like not having something in his hand would make him think more clearly. “Do you still think it would make them worried about me?”

Luther sighed. “Yeah, I do,” he said.  _ Well, it’s not a lie. It’s fine because I’m not lying. They absolutely would be worried if they found out that he had amnesia, especially this bad. _

Klaus let out a long puff of air in response. “Then… I don’t think I want to tell them. They already have enough on their plates.”

“That’s—”

“But how are we going to hide it?”

There was a slight pause as both of them thought. Luther was the first to speak up, albeit tentatively. “What if I told you stuff about them? So you can act like you didn’t forget anything?”

Klaus nodded. “Uh… yeah. That might actually work. Okay.”

* * *

An hour later, they were both on the couch in the living room, sitting cross legged across from each other. The sight of Klaus in sweatpants and a hoodie was still enough to put a slight frown on Luther’s face. Klaus, of course, didn’t notice at all, and just craned his neck to look at the pictures Luther had lined up between them. 

“You know me,” Luther started, pointing at a picture of himself—the first in line. “I didn’t move out because I didn’t want to leave you and Grace alone in the house, plus it was easier to study to be an astrophysicist while not worrying about rent. And you’ve read some of my poetry.”

At Klaus’ nod, he moved on to the next picture.

“Next is Diego. He likes to tease people a lot, and he has a bit of a hot temper sometimes. He’s getting better at it, but he still sometimes says the wrong thing. He doesn’t mean it; he’s actually a gigantic softie. He  _ really _ cares about you, though. Ever since we were little, you two, and our brother Ben, always hung out.”

“Aw,” Klaus said softly, studying Diego’s face. He frowned slightly at all of the scars, but kept quiet.

“He has a wife now,” Luther continued, a small smile playing across his lips. “Her name is Eudora Patch. After they got married, he took her last name. Er, they’re both detectives in the police force. Oh! And they have a little girl named Rosa.” He tapped the photo of the small family, pointing out the little kid that was settled on Diego’s hip.

“Wow! Good for him!”

Luther grinned. “Yeah. Now, you may hear them speaking Spanish to each other. They all speak both Spanish and English.”

“Woah.”

“Next is Allison. She’s a pretty famous actress. You always steal her clothes and you have a collection of her autographs in your room.”

Klaus’ eyebrows crept higher and higher. “I’m related to a famous actress?”

“Well, we were all famous as kids,” Luther joked. 

“Yeah, but this is different! I mean, an actress. Wow. That’s so cool!”

“Alright, alright,” Luther said, though he was smiling. “You done? You can’t act like this around her, you know. They’ll know something is up.”

His smile faded and he cleared his throat, straightening his posture in a way that reminded Luther of both times they all lived under Reginald’s rule. “I’m done,” he said.

“Okay,” Luther said with a slight laugh, hoping that he was putting across the message that he was just messing around. “Allison has also daughter, this one’s named Claire. She’s older than Rosa by a few years, but they’re really good friends. That’s her.”

“Aww,” Klaus cooed and picked up the photo to get a better look. “She’s really cute.”

Luther gave him an odd look. It wasn’t that Klaus  _ hated _ kids before, but he certainly didn’t fawn over them. He wasn’t going to mention it, though.

“Fourth is you. You stayed here too because you had some things you wanted to work on, and you aren’t very great at holding down a job. You thought it would be better if you always had a roof over your head and a plate of food on the table.”

Klaus nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense.” Luther breathed a quiet sigh of relief that he didn’t question what things he needed to work on. “Who’s next?”

“Next up is Five.”

“Five?” Klaus’ nose wrinkled and he sat back.

“Yeah, he didn’t want to be called anything else.”

Klaus leaned forward and peered at the photo of the angry seemingly-teenager. “I thought you said we were all born on the same day.”

“I did. Something happened and now he’s stuck in the body of a thirteen year old. He acts like he’s sixty.”

“Damn, alright. So what’s his deal?”

“He acts annoyed a lot, like he’s too good for whatever is going on, but he really cares about us and he would go to the ends of the Earth to make sure we’re all okay.” 

“Aw.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that. He’s very testy about how young he looks. Though, you tease him about it a lot.”

Klaus snorted. “I sound like a great person,” he said dryly.

A frown came across Luther’s face. He reached across the pictures and grabbed ahold of Klaus’ chin to make him look at him. “Klaus, you’re a wonderful person, and a complete delight to be around. We all love you, okay?”

Klaus paused, blinking quickly, like he was trying to process what Luther just said. “Thank you,” he said gently. When Luther let go, he surged forward and enveloped Luther in a hug. “Thank you for all of this—helping me and taking care of me and teaching me.”

There was definitely not a lump in Luther’s throat when they separated. “It’s okay,” he replied with a soft smile.  _ See? He’s glad I’m doing this. This is good. _

“So… next.”

“Next is Ben,” Luther sighed and pointed him out in the only modern picture of him they had—a family photo they all took when Klaus first made Ben corporeal. “He’s… dead.”

Klaus frowned. “Oh no! Is he the one I was really close to?”

“Yeah. I think it’s safe to say that you were closer to him than anybody else.” Luther glanced over at the chair he knew Ben usually sat in. He didn’t know it, but Ben was sitting in that chair, letting out a string of curse words, accented with some very obscene gestures.

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry,” Luther said, because he truly was sorry. It was technically his fault that Klaus couldn’t see Ben.  _ But that’s a small sacrifice to make in order to not torment Klaus with ghosts, _ Luther reasoned silently as Klaus studied the family picture.  _ He can’t deal with both rebuilding his life and being plagued by his powers. He doesn’t deserve that. _ “Wanna move on?”

Klaus sniffed and set the photo down on his crossed legs. “Yeah. Who’s next.”

“Last but not least is Vanya. She’s lead violinist in this city’s philharmonic orchestra, which is really good. They’ve even done the scores for some movies.”

“Woah!”

Luther grinned. “She has a girlfriend who is also a violin player, though not in that orchestra. Her name is Daisy, and she’s mute, so she only speaks in sign language.”

“Do I know sign language?” Klaus asked, suddenly worried.

Luther freed his hands so he could sign a response. “I don’t know, do you?”

Without even thinking about it, Klaus’ hands came up and he signed, “Apparently.”

Klaus let out a sharp gasp and a laugh. “Woah! Wait, when did I learn sign language?” he asked.

“Diego had a really bad stutter as a kid,” Luther said, leaning his shoulder against the back of the couch. “You, him, Mom, and Ben all learned ASL so he could speak to you guys and not worry about it. The rest of us caught up later.”

“That’s really sweet,” Klaus said thoughtfully. 

“That means you probably know Spanish, too, because you learned some with Diego and Mom. I don’t know any, though, so I can’t help you with that.”

Klaus hummed and craned his neck to look at the photo better. There was his sister, Vanya, with her arms around a girl with dark umber skin and a big smile. “I really like Daisy’s hat,” he murmured under his breath. His gaze snapped up to his brother when he laughed.

“You always try and steal that hat.”

“Well, it’s a nice hat!” Klaus protested, his face falling into a dramatic pout.

_ Maybe not everything changed, _ Luther thought.

* * *

The doorbell rang, pulling Klaus away from the cake he was trying to steal some icing from. “They’re here!” he shouted and ran to the door, streaking past a baffled Luther. He pulled the door open, and—after a moment’s hesitation—flung himself into Diego’s arms.

“Oh, Klaus—”

“I’m so happy to see you,” Klaus beamed and bounced on the balls of his feet for a few seconds before leading Diego, Rosa, and Eudora inside. “Luther and Mom are in the kitchen.”

Diego chuckled and laced his fingers with Eudora’s, watching as his daughter ran ahead. “ _ Cuidado, mija! _ ” he shouted, sighing when he realized she was out of earshot by that point. He looked over at Klaus with a smile. “You seem especially happy. What’s up?”

“Can’t I just be excited that my brother, my sister-in-law, and my niece are here?” Klaus scoffed, though he was starting to worry that his reaction may be too strong and out of character. Luckily, before he could think about it too much, they were in the kitchen and Luther easily took over the conversation.

“Nice to see that you both made it,” Luther grinned, setting down his oven mitt.

“We wouldn’t miss this family dinner for the world,” Eudora replied brightly, leaving Diego’s side to walk over to where the cake was sitting on the cooling rack. “This is really nice. Klaus, did you do this?”

Klaus grinned and nodded as he rocked back and forth from his heels to the balls of his feet. “Mom helped, but I did most of it.”

“Can I have some?” Rosa begged, straining up onto the tips of her toes to try and get a better look at the cake.

“Not now,  _ Princesa _ ,” Eudora hummed and picked her up so she could see the cake better. “This is for after dinner.”

“It looks really good, K,” Diego said. “Your art is getting better and better. I really like this bird.” He motioned to the little bird Klaus had put in icing on the corner of the cake, perched on a branch, its wings about to open and take flight.

“Oh, uh, thanks.”

The slightly awkward response from Klaus’ end was quickly covered up by Luther, who picked up the slack. “And in a different medium, too.”

Klaus’ mouth opened slightly to say something, but the doorbell rang and whatever it was escaped his mind. “That should be the rest of them,” Eudora said. “They all decided to come together.” She directed a sly smile at her husband. “Diego wanted to get ahead of the pack.”

Luther snorted as he stepped past to answer the door. “Of course he did.”

“I resent that!” Diego shouted after him, though Klaus could see there was a smile on his face.

When Luther reentered the room, the rest of their family was behind him, all happily chattering away. Claire, who was tugging on Allison’s shirt before, broke away and ran up to Klaus.

“Uncle Klaus!” she cheered, her small arms wrapping around Klaus’ waist. “I missed you!”

“Hey, Claire,” Klaus said awkwardly, bending down to try and hug her back to the best of his abilities.

She pressed her face into Klaus’ torso, and he looked around the room for help. He saw Vanya’s girlfriend—Daisy—shoot a grin at Grace and set what looked to be spaghetti on the table. Diego ruffled Five’s hair, who grumbled something and quickly tried to put it back in place. Allison pursed her lips and lightly scolded Diego, pairing it with a quick quip about his skill with kids.

Claire peeled herself away from Klaus and ran over to Rosa, who was set back on the ground. They performed some sort of intricate handshake that made Klaus’ head spin, before Rosa turned back to her mom. “Mommy, I’m hungry,” she complained.

Grace chuckled. “Well, I think it’s time for us to eat.”

* * *

The way that dinner was carried out certainly wasn’t what Klaus had expected at all. Diego shot him a weird look when Klaus sat next to Luther and didn’t leave an open seat, but Eudora put a hand on his arm that seemed to calm him down. Klaus knew that him not dominating the conversation would be an issue, since Luther seemed weirded out whenever Klaus was quiet, so he did his best:

“Luther got me new watercolors,” Klaus started as Claire was taking a bite of her fifth garlic roll, deftly evading Rosa’s hands that were trying to grab it out of her mouth.

“Oh, really?” Vanya perked up. “That’s really cool!”

Daisy set her fork down. “Have you painted anything yet?” she signed, a bright twinkle in her dark brown eyes.

“Yeah,” Klaus replied, also setting his fork down. “I’ve painted flowers, mostly. Oh! And the view from that big window in the library.”

Luther took a rather large bite, which caught Diego’s eye. “I thought you usually only painted portraits,” Diego said, frowning a bit.

“Klaus is allowed to explore what he wants to paint,” Grace said calmly. “I think his still-life of my blue hyacinths is beautiful.”

“Yeah, Diego,” Five said, raising an eyebrow and looking down his nose at his much larger brother.

“Yeah, Diego,” Rosa parroted in her much smaller voice, though she hadn’t really been listening to the conversation thus far.

Diego threw a meatball in Five’s direction, which miraculously landed smack-dab in the middle of Five’s forehead, despite how awkward the angle was. Klaus’ mouth fell open.

“Diego,” Eudora admonished quietly.

“Right, sorry,” Diego mumbled under Allison’s and Luther’s glares.

“That was a tough shot,” Klaus said, his eyebrows raised. “That was cool. You know, besides the whole ‘throwing it at our brother’ thing. I bet you’d be good at basketball.”

Vanya shot a confused look towards her girlfriend, which Klaus didn’t notice. What he did notice was the look Diego and Eudora shared, and suddenly he got a sour taste in his mouth, like he’d just said something horribly wrong.  _ Does Diego hate basketball? Are we not supposed to talk about his good aim? What did I just do? _

* * *

The rest of dinner went about the same, with suspicion rising among Diego and Vanya. The other siblings all seemed to chalk it up to Klaus being his normal self, but Diego and Vanya knew better than that. 

As he was preparing to leave, Diego felt a tug on his sleeve: Vanya. “Hey, could I talk to you for a moment? In private?”

Diego glanced at Eudora for a moment before nodding. After she and Rosa left to get in their car, he turned back to Vanya. “What’s up, Vanya?” He guided her over to the side, ducking his head slightly so he could look her in the eye.

“Klaus is acting really weird,” she replied, biting her lip.

Diego sighed and leaned back against the wall. “So I’m not the only one,” he hummed, wishing he had a knife that he could flip between his hands as he thought.

“Didn’t Luther say Klaus hit his head?”

Diego froze, frowning slightly. “Yeah?” he said carefully. “But, Luther said he was fine. Just a little bump.”

“But what if it was more than that? I mean, it wasn’t just Klaus that acted weird. Did you see how Luther winced every time Klaus said something out of the ordinary?”

Diego’s face went blank. “Um. Shit.”

* * *

Ben was there for the conversation, his eyes bouncing back and forth between Diego and Vanya as they started figuring things out. “Come on,” he murmured, his arms crossed anxiously across his chest. “Please, come on, do something. Take Klaus. Get him off those  _ stupid _ pills.”

But, alas, his siblings only knew too much. They didn’t know about the pills, and they only suspected that Klaus hitting his head resulted in something bigger than a minor bump. They didn’t know that Luther had manipulated their mom into being complacent. They didn’t know that Klaus’ perception of his life was built atop lies. They didn’t know that Klaus’ powers were gone, or that he forgot all about his fiancé.

Diego and Vanya said their goodbyes, Diego promising he would look more into it before they both went to their respective cars, leaving a dejected Ben. A Ben who had cried far too much for a person that had been dead for who knows how long. A Ben that just wanted his sibling back.

“Please figure this out soon,” he begged, though the words just hung, unheard, in the cold, dead air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Saturday: Diego draws a cat and Dave laces up some boots
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
>   * Cuidado, mija: Spanish for "Be careful" followed by a petname commonly used for one's daughter.
>   * Princesa: Spanish for "Princess" (wow)
>   * I want y'all to know that this is what my beta tester said in response to the scene where Luther is telling Klaus about Ben: luther: ben is dead klaus: oh no! luther: he used to sit in the chair... ben: FUCK YOU FUCKING MOTHERFUCKER DICKASS BITCH WHAT THE FUCK SCREW YOU ASSHOLE luther: its really tragic actually
> Thank you guys so much for reading! Comments and kudos are much appreciated <3 



	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Diego draws a cat and Dave laces up some boots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... have a feeling you guys are gonna enjoy this one

Diego was planning on telling Eudora what he and his sister had just talked about as soon as he got into the car, but Rosa managed to get a word in before he got the chance: “Daddy, what’s wrong with Titi Klaus?”

“What do you mean, baby?” Diego asked gently, twisting to look at his daughter.

“He was being weird,” she mumbled and looked down at her brightly colored leggings and started playing with the fabric.

That made Diego frown. “Well, Tía Vanya and I were talking about that just now…” By that point, Rosa seemed to have stopped paying attention, so he switched to just talking to Eudora. He told her all about what he and Vanya had talked about and what they thought was going on. As Eudora started driving, she nodded in agreement.

“You know what this means, right?”

Diego stopped toying with a pen he’d found in the cupholder to turn and look at her. “What?”

“You need to get time alone with Klaus and see what’s up. Ask him questions. If he hit his head hard enough, he might have some clouded thinking.”

After a few seconds of staring at her, Diego spoke up. “God, I love you so much.” He leaned across the console to kiss her.

Eudora let it slide momentarily before playfully pushing him away. “I’m driving, mister,” she said, a sly smile on her face. “But I love you too.”

“Ew!” Rosa squealed from the back seat, making them laugh.

“Wait, how the f—heck am I supposed to get alone time with Klaus?” Diego asked suddenly, glancing in the mirror to see if Rosa caught his almost-mistake. “I mean, you saw Luther. He was like an overprotective watch-dog, he wouldn’t let Klaus out of his sight.”

Eudora sighed and fell silent for a few moments. Diego could tell by the look on her face that she was running through possible scenarios. “Well,” she started, “and I hate for you to do this, but what if you trick him? Tell him somebody needs help lifting something, or moving something, and he’s the only one that can help. And you’ll watch Klaus.”

“That’s really smart,” Diego said thoughtfully. “Thank you.”

* * *

“Diego, wake up, baby.”

Without so much as opening his eyes, Diego wrapped his arms tighter around Eudora and groaned slightly. “No,” he mumbled, his voice muffled by sleep.

“Wake up so you can call Luther,” Eudora continued, laughing slightly.

“Don’t say that name this early in the morning.” He pressed his face into Eudora’s shoulder.

“Come on,” she said, trying to extract herself from Diego’s tight hold.

Diego sighed dramatically and pulled his face away slightly so he could peek his eyes open and look up at Eudora. “What’s in it for me?” he asked, lowering his voice.

Eudora hummed thoughtfully, trailing a finger down the side of Diego’s face and tracing his jawline. “How about…” she trailed off and Diego licked his lips, “you get to be able to figure out what’s going on with your sibling.”

Diego frowned, his lower lip sticking out in a slight pout. That was not where he was expecting her sentence to end. “Fine,” he sighed.

“Thank you,” she praised and placed a kiss on his lips before handing him his phone.

Diego dialed the number, which connected after the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Luther,” Diego greeted, pulling on a smile while settling back onto his pillow and pressing himself into Eudora’s side. “Thank goodness you picked up. Daisy and Vanya called and they need help getting a new mattress into their apartment. I would, but Eudora and I…” He looked over at his wife, who pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “We have plans.”

“Oh, um, right. When do they need me to come over?”

Eudora mouthed  _ 30 minutes, _ which Diego repeated.

“Alright. Tell them I’ll be there. Thank you.”

“No problem. Bye!”

Diego set the phone down and shifted to kiss Eudora.

“You have thirty minutes to get ready,” she said slyly, pulling away. “Come on. Get up. Rosa and I can paint nails this morning. You have a sibling to look after.”

Thirty minutes later, Diego was in the car and speeding towards the academy. He and Eudora had gone over what questions he would ask Klaus, so he was well prepared. Knowing Luther would be right on time, he didn’t hesitate to park his car in the alley next to the academy and run inside.

“Oh, hello there, dear,” Grace chirped, pausing her dusting. “Klaus is in his room. I think you two have a lot to talk about.”

That was something that hadn’t crossed his mind: how their mom fit in with whatever situation was going on. She seemed to know something Diego didn’t, but it also it seemed like something prevented her from saying anything about it. Diego just thanked her through gritted teeth, silently vowing that if Luther did anything to manipulate their mom, he didn’t care how much “growth” they had done as a family, Luther was getting knives thrown in his direction, and they wouldn’t miss.

He took the stairs two at a time up to where their bedrooms were. Once he reached Klaus’ room, he knocked on the door and waited. 

“Come in,” came a soft call, uncharacteristic of Klaus, yet still definitely his voice. Diego swallowed harshly as he opened the door. The look of surprise (and…  _ fear? _ ) almost stopped Diego right in his tracks.

“Hey, what’s up?” Diego asked, rubbing his hands together as he walked into the room.

“Nothing.” Klaus pulled his knees up to his chest from where he sat on his bed. “Luther didn’t say you’d be coming over today.”

Diego shrugged in response, sitting on the edge of Klaus’ bed. “I had nothing else to do, and I was missing my favorite sibling, so I thought I’d come over and hang out.”

“Oh.”

“Is that alright?”

Klaus immediately sat up straighter and pulled on a smile, though something about it seemed off. “Of course! What do you want to do?”

“Well, you know how you said you’d teach me how to draw?” Klaus had never promised that, but Diego wanted to know if he knew that.

Klaus nodded. “Yeah,” he chirped. “Want me to teach you now?”

“If you have nothing better to do,” Diego replied, resisting the urge to press his lips into a concerned line.  _ Maybe he just doesn’t want to be rude, _ he thought, though his heart sunk a bit in his chest.

Klaus sent him a smile before he carefully— _ since when was Klaus careful? _ —climbed off the bed and went over to his sketchbook and his drawing pencils. “What do you feel like drawing today?”

Diego hummed, frowning as he watched Klaus’ turned back. “How about a cat? Eudora likes those.”  _ She prefers dogs. _

“Oh, yeah, I remember that! We can do that,” Klaus chirped and turned around. “What style do you want to do?”

_ Maybe he just forgot. Did she ever tell him that in the first place? Am I just being paranoid?  _ “Um, the easiest one?” Diego laughed, though it was forced.

“Well, they’re all difficult in their own way. I think you’d be best starting with cartoon, though. Less details and stuff.”

Diego sighed and nodded. “Alright. Sounds good to me.”

Klaus climbed back on the bed and passed Diego a pencil before opening his sketchbook and laying it across both their laps. “I can show you each step, and we can draw next to each other. Who knows, maybe if it’s good enough I’ll have to hang it up on my wall.”

_ Maybe nothing’s changed, _ Diego thought as he blinked in surprise. Klaus always used to joke about hanging up a drawing they made together.  _ Were Vanya and I just looking too far into this? Maybe I should just call it a day once we’re done drawing and go home. _

“Sounds good to me,” Diego said with a smile. “I’m taking this sweatshirt off, though. I forgot how warm your room got.” He shifted his weight so he wouldn’t bump into Klaus before stretching his arms up and behind him. He grabbed the fabric of his sweatshirt and pulled it up and over his head, sighing in frustration when his t-shirt came with it, exposing his torso. Once the sweatshirt was off his head, Diego looked down at the bunch of fabric in his hands, frowning at his shirt, which was also in the bundle.

“Holy shit,” came a whisper from his side, making Diego frown and turn to Klaus as he pulled his shirt back on.

“What’s up?”

“Where did you get those?”

Diego tilted his head, confusion written all over his features. “Get what?”

“Your scars!”

He looked down at his clothed torso with a frown. He didn’t have any new scars from the last time they talked, and even if he did, Klaus never  _ ever _ mentioned it. They all had scars, nobody talked about it. Not to each other, at least. That was the  _ rule. _ An unspoken rule, maybe, but still a rule they all followed. “What do you mean?” he asked warily. 

“The ones that are a straight line. Under your pecs.” 

“Are you kidding me?” 

Klaus paused, his mouth hanging open. He knew he messed up. In a quick attempt to cover up his mistake, he let out a high pitched giggle. “Yep, just a joke.” 

Diego frowned. Last time he heard that fake, panicked laugh, Klaus was high out of his mind—and he knew for a fact Klaus was sober. “Then tell me where these scars are from.”

Klaus’ mouth flapped open and closed like a fish out of water. “When we were kids—”

“Nope,” Diego interrupted. He saw the panic take over Klaus’ face and rushed to comfort him. “Hey, K, I’m not mad! I’m just worried—do you really not know where I got these scars from?” He lifted up his shirt and motioned to the two straight lines.

There was a moment of hesitation before Klaus eventually shook his head, looking down. “I’m sorry.”

Diego dropped his shirt and pulled his sibling into a tight hug. “It’s alright.” When he leaned back, he maintained steady eye contact. “I’m trans,” he said, wincing slightly. “These scars are from my top surgery, when they removed my b-b-b… when they fixed my chest.”

“Oh,” Klaus whispered, leaning back slightly. He lifted up his shirt to inspect his own chest. “Did I get that surgery too?”

“What? No, why?”

“Luther said I was trans…”

Diego sighed and winced, his shoulders dropping. He moved until his back hit the wall behind him, then motioned for Klaus to sit next to him. When he did, Diego wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer, a position they sat in a lot when they spent more time together.

“When we were kids, you figured out you were trans after I did,” Diego started, speaking slowly to try and push past any stutters. “You came into my bed one night and told me you weren’t a boy, just like I wasn’t a girl. You were born a boy, and realized that you just weren’t that. You aren’t a girl either. You’re just you. Not a boy, not a girl, just Klaus.”

Klaus nodded, his mouth hanging open slightly.

“I’m guessing Luther didn’t explain it that well,” Diego joked, laughing when Klaus shook his head. “I have to ask,” started Diego, wincing when Klaus wilted like a dying flower, “what happened? Why don’t you remember this?”

* * *

Diego was  _ furious.  _ Livid. Seeing red. After hugging his crying sibling, Diego got up and marched downstairs to the house phone, and dialed the number of the only person he knew to: Dave Katz.  _ Puta madre, this is going to be hard. _

* * *

Dave Katz was a good drill sergeant. He was also one of the youngest. Thanks to Allison’s help, once he came to the present, he was able to achieve his dream: being a drill sergeant. Sure, it wasn’t a common dream, but it combined something he loved with something he thought was important: teaching and making sure that the military  _ isn’t _ filled with hyper-chauvinists. Sue him. The time Dave spent in Vietnam taught him a few things about masculinity.

That being said, he certainly wasn’t a stereotypical drill sergeant. He wasn’t the kind Klaus talked about from the movies—he never called anybody “maggot,” he was never unnecessarily cruel, and he hated making fun of anybody that was genuinely struggling with something. (The most stereotypical thing about him was that he hated being called sir. Well, for the most part. Klaus was the exception.)

Sure, Dave’s tough. He’ll yell so hard he loses his voice—which, on some days, cracks like he’s back in middle school. He has some pretty outrageous punishments too. His most creative one was probably when he made a recruit sweep all of the sunshine off the sidewalk after she failed to keep both her uniform and her bunk clean for a week straight. It took her all day. The recruits pale the most when Dave is the one that calls out a “half-right, face.” (That’s certainly a point of pride for him.) What he’s proudest of, though, is the tricks he pulls on the recruits.

Dave’s favorite trick was telling the recruits to return to the barracks. He could  _ feel _ the sigh of relief among the crowd as he walked away, their postures lessening slightly. Little did they know, he would go out and hide by his car. After a few minutes, he would walk back into the barracks and call them all to attention. Dave would always have to pinch his left wrist behind his back so he wouldn’t burst out laughing at the panicked looks on their faces as they rushed to get on the line.

His favorite part of being a drill sergeant was watching over the recruits, though. If a recruit was having a particularly rough time, he would often take them to the side and talk to them about it, check and see if they’re okay and give them some encouragement. He could never understand why some people thought insults were more effective than compliments.

Dave always looked forward to graduation, when he got to celebrate how far the recruits had come. He makes it a point to greet every new soldier and their family, and he  _ loves _ taking pictures with them.

Just like any other job, there were parts that Dave didn’t look forward to. The worst was the gas chamber training, when the recruits went into the gas chambers and were ordered to take off their gas masks. It didn’t matter how many times he oversaw that, every time he would return to his dorm within the barracks and cry, the screams of the recruits echoing through his mind.

It would all be made easier if he could keep in contact with Klaus, but he only used his phone on Sundays in order to keep up discipline. When Klaus stopped answering the phone, Dave felt like something in his life had gone wrong, like one picture amongst many slipping slightly and hanging at an angle, ruining the entire wall. Every time it was Luther that picked up, his heart sunk further and further. He talked to the Senior Drill Sergeant and requested that he get time off after this round was over. She gave it to him.

_ One more week, _ Dave thought as he laced up his boots.  _ One more week until I walk through that front door, flowers in hand, and greet my Klaus. _

His thoughts were cut off by his phone buzzing frantically on his nightstand, inching closer and closer to the edge. Dave reached out and caught it as it fell, blinking at the phone.  _ Who would be calling me? _ Klaus knew to let Dave call him— _ unless he’s just that excited to talk to me? How long has it been, nine weeks? _

The phone buzzed again, like it was yelling at him to  _ snap out of it and answer me already! _ Dave obliged.

“Hello? Klaus?”

“No, this is Diego,” was the terse reply. Of course. It was foolish of him to suspect it was Klaus. He hadn’t been able to talk in… a while. “But it’s about Klaus.” Oh.

“What? Is everything okay? What’s going on?”

Diego sighed on the other end, his voice shaking slightly. “T-This is a lot. Could you let me get it all out before you speak? I think i-it’s the only way I’ll be able to get through this.”

Panicked tears pricked at Dave’s eyes. “First, tell me he’s okay.”

He could hear Diego stop breathing for a moment before pushing out, “He’s alive. Before you ask for anything else, I need to tell you what’s going on, alright?”

Dave nodded, swallowing harshly. “Okay.” He sat down on the edge of his bed, his uniform forgotten.

“About two months ago, Klaus and Luther were practicing Klaus’ powers—levitation—and something went wrong. Klaus s-said he went too high, and he just… dropped.”

Dave covered his mouth to muffle the choked sound that escaped his mouth.

“Klaus h-hit his head and g-g-got knocked out.” Diego took a deep breath. “When he woke up, he…” Diego had to pause because his stuttering got so bad. “He didn’t remember anything. He didn’t recognize Luther or our mom, or any of the pictures of us. Luther told him about our childhood, but the stuff he mentioned d-d-didn’t sound right.”

_ “Ben zona.” _

“Yeah. We went over to the Academy to have a family dinner and Luther told us not to mention his powers, or… you. He explained it away, though, so none of us t-thought anything was wrong.”

“Me?”

“I haven’t heard him talk about you once,” Diego admitted. “I think you need to come home.”

Dave stood up. “Yeah, definitely. I…” Dave sighed. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Hey, I’m taking Klaus to my place, because I’m not leaving him alone with Luther for another second. You have my address, right?”

“Yeah. Thank you. I’ll have to talk to the Senior Drill Sergeant about getting time off, since we still have a week left of this rotation. But don’t worry,  _ nothing _ can keep me away. We just got another sergeant so it should be fine. I—” Dave sighed again and pushed his hand through his curls over and over, like Klaus used to do when he got too stressed.  _ Klaus does it a lot gentler, though. _ “Yeah. I’ll be there. Call me with any updates.”

“Alright. Hey man, I’m sorry about this. I should have caught it sooner, I mean—”

“It’s fine. Just get Klaus out of there and we’ll deal with it.”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Thank you.”

* * *

Luther’s heart dropped when he saw the looks on Daisy’s and Vanya’s faces when he mentioned the new mattress. He left Klaus home alone for no reason. Fuck.

“Er, yeah, I have to go.” Luther jumped into the car, slamming the door so hard the metal bent, and sped out onto the road, leaving two very confused people standing outside their apartment building.

Luther barely breathed at all as he raced through the cars, ran red lights, and jumped curbs. When he finally reached the academy after what felt like an eternity, he sprinted inside. “Klaus?” he shouted. “ _ Klaus? _ ”

“Hello there, dear.” Grace’s sweet honeyed voice made Luther snap his wide gaze towards her. “Diego came over and took Klaus. He left a note on the kitchen table. Sweet boys, you always did get so restless when you were cooped up inside for too long.”

Without so much as acknowledging his mom, he ran past her into the kitchen. He grabbed the note in his shaking hands and read it once, twice, three times.

* * *

_ Luther— _

_ Found out what you did to Klaus. I’m not letting you keep hurting him like that. I took him over to mine. Don’t come. Don’t contact me. _

_ Fuck you, _

_ Diego _

* * *

Ben was practically vibrating as he, Diego, and Klaus piled out of the car. “Finally,” he shouted, jumping up and down on the spot, something Klaus would normally do more than he would.

“Come on, K.” Diego slung an arm around his sibling’s shoulder and pulled him close. “Let’s get you inside. Eudora and Rosa are excited to see you.”

If Ben was corporeal, he would hug Diego in that moment. Instead, he just followed right behind his siblings as they went into Diego’s house. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you so much, Diego.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Saturday: Dave puts on a pair of sweatpants and Ben does a little dance
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
>   * Titi: It is emerging as the gender-neutral alternative for "aunt" or "uncle" in the Spanish language! And I thought hey, if our bb is non-binary, here we go!
>   * Tía: Spanish for "aunt"
>   * Puta madre: Spanish interjection used to express frustration
>   * Ben zona: Hebrew for "son of a bitch"
>   * "Half-right, face" is a command commonly used in the army boot camp that leads to the recruits doing a shit ton of push-ups. When you hear that phrase, you gotta prepare yourself for a world of hurt.
>   * The gas chamber training is a real thing that happens in basic. The recruits go into a chamber that is filled with tear gas. They have to take their masks off and give a bit of information, and then they're allowed to leave. The intent is to build up a soldier's trust in their gas mask. It's really really horrible and I don't suggest looking it up because it's sickening, especially as the child of a soldier.
> 

> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Comments and kudos are much appreciated <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dave puts on a pair of sweatpants and Ben does a little dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, this chapter bumped this fic up to mature. Certain things occur. Gay rights, everybody.

Eudora set them up nice. She wrapped Klaus up in a large, fluffy blanket, and he and Diego sat next to each other watching  _ Matilda _ —a movie that Klaus loved even before he discovered he could levitate. Diego couldn’t blame him, it was a really fun movie to watch. He turned and smiled at Eudora when she sat down next to him, passing each of them some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies—Klaus’ favorite.

“Cookies!” Rosa gasped and got up from where she was working on a coloring book down on the floor to get some.

“Thank you,” Diego whispered and kissed Eudora’s temple.

Klaus echoed the thanks, but he put the cookies on the end-table next to him, not looking like he was planning on eating them any time soon. 

Diego and Eudora shared a look. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Hey, K, how are you feeling?” Diego asked, tightening his grip around Klaus for a moment. It had been a day since he took him away from the Academy and Klaus had been acting odd, to say the least. He was quiet and distant, not talking any more than he had to. Eudora and Diego couldn’t tell if it was because they were practically strangers to him, or if it was because that was just how he was now. They hoped it was the former.

Klaus shrugged one shoulder, not moving his gaze from the television. “Fine.”

Diego nodded. “Good.” He glanced from the door, which was behind them, to Eudora. “When is…?”

“He said he’d be here in a few minutes,” Eudora said. “He was almost out of gas.”

Diego frowned. “Alright.”

They quietly sat there, cuddled against one another. Diego kept throwing glances over his shoulder at the front door, movements Klaus either didn’t register or just decided to ignore. In fact, he only reacted to something that wasn’t on the television when the door suddenly swung open. Heavy footsteps came inside the house followed by the thud of a duffle bag being set on the ground—making Klaus perk up with something Ben hadn’t seen in the longest time: recognition.

“Hey,” Dave greeted from behind.

In a split second, Klaus was out of the bundle of blankets and rocketing over the back of the couch and towards Dave. Without a thought even crossing Klaus’ mind, Dave’s name flew out of his mouth as he soared through the air into the man’s arms.

Dave immediately caught Klaus as Klaus wrapped his legs around his waist and pressed his face into his shoulder, ending up with Klaus nestled securely in Dave’s arms like an oversized koala. “Hey, sunshine,” he murmured, pressing kisses to Klaus’ neck and rubbing soothing circles against his hip.

“Davey, you’re…” Klaus trailed off and pulled back. Dave let him return his feet safely to the ground and back a couple feet away. “Wait,” he whispered softly. “I…” He turned back to look at the family on the couch. “I…?”

Eudora laughed softly. “Looks like you just remembered something.”

“Somebody,” Diego corrected.

“Me,” emphasized Dave, who stepped forward towards Klaus. He cupped his cheek in a gentle hand and carefully guided Klaus into a kiss. When they pulled away, he warmly whispered, “You remembered  _ me _ .”

“I remember you,” Klaus echoed breathlessly.

Somewhere in the background, Diego and Eudora announced that they were taking Rosa out for ice cream, and they’ll probably take a while. Neither really noticed, though, both too engrossed in each other’s eyes to notice them leaving through the front door.

“I remember you,” Klaus repeated, choking on a sob. “Oh my god, I remember you!” He surged forward to kiss Dave again, wrapping his arms around the slightly taller man’s neck. Dave responded in kind, his hands settling on Klaus’ hips.

When they separated, neither pulled away from the warm embrace—though Dave did bring his hands up to ever so tenderly wipe away the tears that were on Klaus’ cheeks with his thumbs. “I love you so much,” Dave whispered. “I missed you. I couldn’t talk to you and I was so worried that—”

“Wait.” Klaus hung his hands on Dave’s forearms. “Oh my god, Luther.”

Dave cleared his throat. He’d been trying his best to hide his anger at the whole situation, and the pleasant distraction of Klaus  _ remembering who he was _ certainly made that easy, but all of that peace threatened to shatter at the name. “We’ll worry about him later,” Dave said, trying not to sound overly mad. That anger had no business being around Klaus. He’d save it for later.

“Okay.” Klaus nodded and rested his head on Dave’s shoulder, trusting him completely.

Dave relaxed immediately, wrapping his arms back around Klaus. “I’m here, doll. What do you want to do now?”

“Be,” Klaus answered simply, his voice softly muffled.

“Alright,” Dave replied with a small chuckle. “Where do you want to be?”

Klaus sighed. “This is going to sound weird, but I want to go back to the Academy. We can hang out in my room. And you can go all guard-dog-Dave if somebody comes near me.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of Dave’s lips and he nodded, carding a hand through Klaus’ curls. “Sounds great,  _ yekirì _ ,” he hummed. “Let’s go.”

Dave stepped back and grabbed his military-issue duffle bag. It was at that moment when Klaus realized that he was still in his uniform, and his eyebrows shot straight up. “Oh,” he whispered.

“Hm?” Dave asked, barely suppressing a cocky smile at Klaus’ reaction. It wasn’t exactly a surprise, after all.

“I mean, I  _ do _ always love a man in uniform,” Klaus said, slipping on a sly smile and stepping forward, swinging his hips dramatically. When he reached Dave—who quickly dropped his bag again—he walked his fingers up Dave’s chest to wrap his arms around the back of his neck. He pushed himself up onto the tips of his toes and kissed Dave, gently pushing him until Dave’s back hit the wall behind him.

Dave let it go on for a second, even so much as letting his fingertips trace Klaus’ stomach just under his shirt, before he finally flipped the two so that Klaus was the one against the wall. “You like my uniform?” he asked, his voice deepening to a low rumble as he brushed his lips across the pulse point on Klaus’ neck, making him whimper and shiver. “Well too bad, because it’s uncomfortable and I’m changing out of it into a nice pair of sweatpants as soon as possible.” He stepped away and grabbed his bag.

“What?” Klaus remained draped against the wall, frowning slightly in confusion. “Wait, what just happened?”

Dave tilted his head slightly, his crooked smirk tipping Klaus off. 

“No,” Klaus whispered, his voice quickly turning into a facetious whine. “No, Dave, don’t you dare!”

“Come on, sweetheart, we don’t want to hit the morning traffic,” Dave said, stepping towards the door.

“But Davey!” Klaus had half a mind to stomp his foot.

Dave shot him a cheeky grin. “Go gather your stuff, doll. I’ll wait in the car.”

* * *

When Klaus still hadn’t gotten out of the house ten minutes later, Dave decided to go searching for him. Logically, he knew that nothing was wrong, but after spending almost two and a half years without him—the last nine of which without any contact at all because he apparently  _ forgot Dave existed _ —Dave had to admit his imagination did get a bit fatalistic. Right as he was about to step back in through the front door, Klaus burst out. 

“Da—Oh you’re right here!” He was out of breath like he’d just run a mile.

“What’s up? Is everything alright?” Dave asked, his eyebrows furrowing in concern as he lightly traced his fingers up and down Klaus’ arms.

“Yes! I… I remembered stuff! Not a lot of stuff, but stuff about us! Like, how you promised you’d buy us a cabin in the woods, where everything’s quiet and peaceful.”

Dave’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he got his voice to work again. “Holy shit, that’s amazing, Klaus!” He picked him up in a tight hug and spun him around. “Ikh hab dikh lib,” he murmured warmly and tilted Klaus so he could pull him into a kiss.

* * *

The ride to the academy was quick. Dave’s hand found its spot on Klaus’ thigh and didn’t move the entire time they were in the car. Klaus didn’t complain; though he didn’t remember everything about the time they spent apart, he knew enough to appreciate how exhilarating it was to finally be back together.

“I love you,” Dave hummed, using his finger to absently draw small circles on the inside of Klaus’ thigh.

Klaus closed his eyes, smiling in the sunlight that warmed his face. “I love you too.”

For a split second, Dave tore his eyes away from the road to look down at the hand that was holding the steering wheel, appreciating how the engagement ring looked against his skin. He tried not to think too much about the whereabouts of Klaus’ ring.

* * *

When the car pulled up to the front of the Academy, neither could hide how uncomfortable they were with the prospect of returning so soon. It wasn’t nearly as bad for Klaus, but given how extreme Diego’s reaction was to the whole situation, he figured it should be. With a glance over at Dave, he saw just how pale the other man was.

“Hey,” Klaus said softly, reaching over and rubbing Dave’s arm, which seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. “It’ll be alright.”

Dave shot him a smile. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

When they got out of the car, Klaus insisted Dave carry him inside, and who was Dave to object? So, Dave slung his duffle bag over his shoulders like a back pack, picked Klaus up, and carried him bridal style, pausing to let Klaus loop his arms around his neck before he stepped inside.

Almost immediately, he heard movement in the living room—too much to be Grace, which only left Luther. Klaus could feel Dave stiffen, his arms tightening slightly around his body as Luther stepped into the entrance. “Klaus,” Luther started, his mouth hanging open slightly.

“Shut it,” Dave snapped, using the sergeant voice that always made Klaus weak at the knees and anybody else tremble with fear. “We aren’t here for you. He doesn’t want to talk to you. So kindly leave us alone and don’t bother us.”

Luther’s mouth snapped shut, and he silently let the pair pass.

Klaus didn’t ask how Dave knew his way to his bedroom. He figured that he knew somehow, and didn’t want to make Dave concerned by asking. So when Dave opened Klaus’ door and gently kicked it shut behind him, Klaus just hummed happily and buried his face in Dave’s neck, making him laugh softly.

“Doll, I need you to let go of me so I can put you on the bed.”

Klaus sighed dramatically before placing a kiss on Dave’s neck and letting go, but not without noticing the goosebumps that appeared on the man’s skin.

“Thank you, love,” Dave muttered, then gently laid Klaus out on the bed.

Klaus hummed in response, closing his eyes and going pliant. “Come cuddle me,” he whined, peeking one eye open.

“In a minute. I don’t think you want me to cuddle you when I’m in my uniform. That wouldn’t be comfortable.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t obj—Oh.” Both his eyes snapped open when Dave’s words sunk in. He shifted so he could get a full view of Dave. “Yeah, I think it would be best if you changed out of your uniform and into those comfortable sweatpants you were talking about. Or maybe don’t change into anything. You know, it’s not that cold in here.”

Dave huffed out a laugh and sent Klaus a withering look. “You’re impossible,” he teased as he started taking off his uniform. Klaus couldn’t tell if he was doing it that slowly on purpose or if that was just how he did it. Either way, it was agonizing.

“Davey,” Klaus finally whined after a minute of Dave undressing and he was still woefully wearing a shirt. “Hurry up and cuddle with me.”

For a moment, Dave leveled a look towards Klaus, slightly arching his eyebrow. At that, Klaus fell silent. A light smile took over Dave’s face and he quickly finished getting out of his uniform. When he bent down to rummage through his duffle bag for a pair of sweatpants, he made sure to give his audience of one an eyeful.

Before Klaus could let out another complaint, Dave quickly pulled on the baggy sweatpants—which sat  _ way _ too low on Dave’s hips if he expected Klaus to keep his hands to himself—and climbed into bed, enveloping Klaus in his big, strong arms. Klaus could have sworn he’d died right there and gone to heaven. He looked up at Dave, who was running his fingers through Klaus’ hair, and started pressing slow kisses to Dave’s collarbone.

“What are you doing?” Dave asked, feigning innocence.

“Nothing,” Klaus hummed, his kisses trailing up under Dave’s jawline.

Dave made a soft noise, obviously not believing him. His hands trailed down Klaus’ back to his waist, which he gripped for a moment. Then, without warning, Dave flipped them so that he was laying on his back and Klaus was on his stomach on top of him. 

Klaus flicked his eyes up to look at Dave while he continued his kisses—which had trailed back down to the man’s chest. “I love it when you manhandle me like that, Davey,” he purred.

“I wouldn’t have been able to guess,” Dave teased, his fingers slowly dragging Klaus’ shirt up his torso.

Klaus let himself get lovingly undressed. At some point along the way—between when his shirt landed on the floor and when his pants joined it—Dave flipped them again so that he was the one on top.

“I love you,” Dave whispered against Klaus’ bare skin. His warm mouth trailed down Klaus’ torso until he traced the black lines on his stomach:  _ Klaus loves Dave. _ He hummed, kissing along one of the characters before tracing it with the pad of his finger and enjoying the feeling of Klaus’ muscles tense beneath him.

“As delightful as this is,” Klaus breathed, “I would really appreciate it if we got a move on. We haven’t seen each other in how long? We can be slow later; right now I need  _ you _ .”

Dave didn’t speed up—if anything, he slowed down—and Klaus let out a high pitched whine. “Davey, please.”

He hummed, then simply said, “No,” before going back to leaving gentle kisses across Klaus’ skin.

* * *

Klaus’ gasps and sighs were music to Dave’s ears, and he couldn’t get enough of them. Though part of him longed to do what Klaus said and go as fast as he wanted, he craved the feeling of Klaus in his arms more than anything else, and he was taking his sweet time savoring it. His fingers laced with Klaus’ as he whispered loving words in his ear, going slow and gentle.

There was a twinge in his heart when he had to pull away so he could fetch a warm, wet towel, but it was worth it when Klaus purred happily under his touch as he cleaned him up. He hurried to get back in bed with him, not wanting to spend a single spare second away from his Klaus. Once he had his already sleeping form in his arms, Dave felt like he could finally breathe again.

* * *

In all the time Klaus had slept, despite being incredibly tired, Dave stayed awake. He didn’t want to miss a single moment with Klaus. So, when Klaus stirred, Dave was ready to start gently peppering his face with kisses. “Good morning,  _ zissele, _ ” he whispered, his voice rumbling in his chest.

Klaus squirmed slightly before burying his face in Dave’s chest.

“Sweetheart, when was the last time you ate anything?”

“Um…” Klaus’ face scrunched up as he thought. “This morning. I had eggs benedict.”

Dave frowned. “Really?”

“Yeah? What’s wrong with that?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just… you used to hate eggs benedict. I’m glad you ate, though.” Despite his words, Dave couldn’t push away the dark worry that settled in his chest at the reminder of the current situation. When Klaus only made a noise of acknowledgement as his response, Dave kept talking. “You said you remembered something,” Dave started. “What was that?”

“Oh. Lots of stuff. Like, about our relationship, and about you. But—” Klaus laughed lightly, “—I don’t think all of it is right.”

“What do you mean?” He adjusted so he could watch Klaus as he talked.

“Well, I have this one memory, dream, thing, where we’re fighting in a war. Like, full on soldiers in the Vietnam War. Crazy, right?” Klaus giggled, though it died when he realized Dave wasn’t laughing. “What?”

“ _ Neshama sheli,” _ he started softly, not sure exactly how to break it to him. “That wasn’t a dream. That’s a true memory. We met in ‘68, in the A Shau Valley in Vietnam.”

“What?” Klaus’ voice came out in an embarrassing squeak. “How? I mean, 1968, that was—And anyway, it can’t have been true, because there were a bunch of ghosts, and I know for a  _ fact _ that—”

A knock on the door made him fall silent. For a moment, the couple was terrified that Luther would walk in, silently panicking as they scrambled to drape the blanket over their bare waists. “Come in,” Dave finally called, wrapping a protective arm around Klaus and pulling him closer.

When it was Grace’s head that popped into the room, they let out a sigh of relief. “Hi, sweeties. Dave, it’s so nice to have you back in the house. I brought you both some water.” She passed them two cups, and sweetly requested that they not spill it in Klaus’ bed. “Oh, and Klaus, I brought you the pills that Luther has been giving you. I know you didn’t get to take one yesterday because you were over at Diego’s. I’ll leave today’s dose here on the nightstand.”

Klaus could feel all the tension return to Dave’s body. “The what?” Dave asked through gritted teeth, trying desperately to put a damper on his anger for Klaus’ sake.

Grace sighed and sent him a knowing look. “I’m not permitted to stop Luther, though I don’t see how telling you about them will go against any rules. After all, it’s not my decision what you do with your newfound information, is it?” she asked, a small twinkle in her eye.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Klaus’ voice wobbled a bit and Dave tightened his hold on Klaus to comfort him.

She pressed her lips together. “Sweetie, when you lost consciousness, Luther found some pills in the infirmary. I believe he started giving them to you in order to get ahead of any pain you may feel, but it had an unintended side effect. You—” She sighed and paused for a moment, going over her words carefully. “You have powers, Klaus. Specifically, the ability to see ghosts and to levitate. And these pills are stopping that.”

* * *

“Yes!” Ben shouted, jumping up and down. “Oh my god, Mom, I would kiss you if I could. Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

He danced in a circle for a few moments before regaining his composure and taking a deep breath. “Alright, Dave, use that brain of yours and get Klaus off these pills. Come on.” Ben rubbed his hands together excitedly, his system flooding with a feeling he hadn’t felt in a while: anticipation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next Saturday, when Luther almost drops a watering can and Eudora makes a decision.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 Comments and kudos are much appreciated!
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
>   * Yekirì: Hebrew for "my dear"
>   * Ikh hab dikh lib: Yiddish for "I love you"
>   * Zissele: Yiddish for "sweetheart"
>   * Neshama sheli: Hebrew for "my soul"
>   * Yes! That was some Yiddish from our boy. [@books-n-bentleys](https://books-n-bentleys.tumblr.com/) [(EmAndFandems),](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/EmAndFandems/pseuds/EmAndFandems) who has helped me a lot with the Hebrew and Yiddish side of things, helped me realize that since Dave is probably Ashkenazi, then he would probably know Yiddish too! So here I am, hopefully providing The Good Stuff.
> 



	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Luther almost drops a watering can and Eudora makes a decision.

Within a few minutes of Grace leaving, Klaus had worked himself up to the point of a panic attack. After all, he did just learn that the one human he spent the last three months trusting with every portion of his life had spent those three months drugging him to hide the fact that he  _ can fucking see ghosts and float. _ Dave had to calm him down, rubbing his hands over Klaus’ face and arms and doing breathing exercises so he wouldn’t hyperventilate.

“Come on,  _ motek,” _ Dave murmured, trying to keep his voice low and soothing, “it’s okay. We’ll figure this out. It’s alright.”

Klaus gulped in air and his watery, bloodshot eyes finally came up to meet Dave’s. Dave only had time to see Klaus’ lower lip tremble before he launched himself into Dave’s lap and wrapped his thin arms around his torso. He sobbed quietly, muffling his noises with his hand.

“Hey, sunshine,” he said softly, wrapping his arms around Klaus and rocking him back and forth. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. We’ll fix this, okay?”

Klaus nodded, though Dave suspected he was only half listening. “So I have powers and the pills are taking them away?” he asked through shaky breaths.

Dave hummed his assent.

“Alright, then I want to quit. I don’t want to take them anymore. I want to be me again.”

Dave sucked on his teeth. From what little knowledge he had on substance abuse, he knew that cold turkey wasn’t the best option, and he figured that was extra true if it was the only thing stopping Klaus from seeing something that had traumatized him so much that he got high for over ten years straight. “I’m not sure if that’s the best idea, love.”

“What do you mean?” Klaus frowned at Dave, his curls getting in his eyes. “You agree that these pills are bad, right?”

“Of course I do,” Dave said soothingly, reaching up and cupping the side of Klaus’ face with his hand and stroking his cheek with his thumb, “but I also think we should wean you off of them. Just in case there are some unknown side effects from going cold turkey.”

Klaus fell quiet for a few moments. He trusted Dave to no end, so he eventually sighed and nodded. “Alright,” he whispered. “Yeah. Can—Can we talk about something else now? Get my mind off of it?”

“Of course, sweetheart. What do you want to talk about?”

“Well, I remember some things about us,” Klaus started with a frown, like he was fishing for the thoughts and they were only just within reach. He twisted in Dave’s lap so his back was pressed into Dave’s chest. “Like, I know that we met in Vietnam, and that, apparently, I see ghosts, and that you helped me with that. And I know that you like your coffee with a little bit of cinnamon—little stuff like that.

“But I don’t… I don’t know the big things. I don’t know why—like, why did you leave and become a drill sergeant? Like, we spent a lot of time apart between Vietnam and now, but you still left.”

Dave cleared his voice and blinked quickly, shifting his weight. “Um, yeah, we did spend a lot of time apart. Do you remember why?”

Klaus thought for a few seconds before shaking his head.

“I, um, I died, love.”

“You… what?”

Dave sighed and tightened his hold around Klaus’ middle. He dropped his face down to ghost his lips over Klaus’ shoulder. “I got shot in the line of fire. I died in your arms.”

Klaus reached up and covered his mouth, smothering a small choking sound that escaped his lips. “Oh my god,” he let out, his voice muffled.

“I’m alright now,” Dave whispered and started rocking Klaus back and forth. “It’s okay. I’m here now.”

“You  _ died.” _ He squeezed his eyes shut, making some tears drip down onto his cheeks.

“And Five brought me back. I’m here, motek.”

Klaus took some more shuddering breaths. “Fuck. Alright.”

“Do you want to stop talking about this?”

“No,” he shook his head. “No, keep going.”

Dave nodded and kissed the side of Klaus’ head before taking a deep breath and continuing. “I didn’t leave right away. For years, we lived right here in this room. We had a nice little garden. You’d paint, and I would write poetry. We’d listen to The Doors and dance. And we cooked  _ delicious _ food.”

“Why did you leave?”

He sighed and grabbed one of Klaus’ hands. “I grew up in a small town. I was always out doing something. I could never stay still for too long, you know? And, like, I love being with you—I would do anything to be with you—but I could feel some sort of restlessness starting to creep in. And I knew that if that restlessness got any bigger, I might say something that I didn’t mean, or I might start to not treat you how you deserve. Not, like, hitting you or anything. But you’re a ray of sunshine, sweetheart, and you deserve the world. And I was worried that if I got, I don’t know, weird, then I might not be able to give you the world.

“So we talked about it, and we decided it would be nice to try and see if I can be a drill sergeant. It’s like being a teacher, but I also get to try and change how some of the soldiers are. Make sure they stay compassionate, you know?”

Klaus cracked a smile. “Yeah. You’re compassionate, alright.”

“Thank you, love,” he chuckled and kissed Klaus’ head again. “I, er, we talked to Allison, and she managed to rumor me into getting the necessary paperwork, I guess? I’m still not sure how that whole thing worked. I really—” Dave’s voice faltered and he cleared his voice as he tightened his grip on Klaus. “I  _ hated _ leaving you, and I  _ hated _ being apart from you, but we both knew I couldn’t be idle forever.

“At first you were going to come and live on base with me. But when your powers started developing, we realized that being away from the Academy wouldn’t be a good idea. Plus, the ghosts would probably be really, really bad on a military base. So, we decided to leave you here. That was, um, that was over two years ago.” Dave fell quiet as he curled around Klaus, taking in the scent of his Klaus. “I missed you, darling.”

“I missed you too,” Klaus murmured.

“I’m here now. And I’m never going to leave your side.”

* * *

“Hey, Dave?” A knock on the bedroom door pulled Klaus and Dave out of their half-asleep cuddle session.

“Yeah?” Dave’s voice was rough with sleep as he poked his head up to see Diego walk in. 

“Sorry, I didn’t know you guys were—”

“It’s fine,” Klaus hummed, reaching up and dragging his fingers through Dave’s hair. “What’s up, Di?”

Diego shot Klaus a soft smile, before looking back up at Dave. “I was wondering if Dave and I could have a bit of a talk, for a second.”

“Yeah, sure.” Dave started scooting off the bed, which was a bit of a feat since he was between Klaus and the wall, and Klaus wasn’t moving. “Just give me a sec to put on a shirt.” He bent down and pressed a kiss to Klaus’ shoulder. “I’ll be right out.”

When Dave stepped out into the hallway, he was still adjusting how his shirt lay on his torso. “What’s up?”

“We need to talk to Luther.” Diego was leaning against the wall opposite of Klaus’ door, flipping a knife in his hands.

“I—” Dave sighed and threw a glance back at the closed bedroom door. “Yeah. You’re right.” He’d been wanting to avoid it as long as possible, spend all of his time with Klaus. He knew that the moment he saw Luther, he’d be filled with anger again. “Where is he now?”

“His garden-thing in the greenhouse.”

Dave nodded once. “Let’s go.”

* * *

“We need to talk.” Diego’s voice cut through the mellow piano music that was filtering in through the speaker of the small radio, which was perched on a shelf in the greenhouse.

“Je—” Luther flinched, almost dropping the watering can he was holding. His shoulders fell when he turned around and saw who it was. “Oh. Yeah. Okay. Can we… Do you want to sit down?” Luther sat on a chair and motioned to two others.

“We’re good,” Dave said tightly, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Alright.” Luther nodded.

There were a few moments of silence before Diego spoke up. “Are you going to talk, or are we just going to sit here listening to a piano for the rest of the day?”

Luther looked up from where he was chewing on a hangnail. “You want me to…? Alright. Um, I don’t know where to start.”

“How about when Klaus got amnesia and you decided not to tell us?” Dave suggested, narrowing his eyes.

“Right.” Luther’s eyes darted down to the ground in front of his feet. He stayed silent. Diego was going to make another comment but suddenly Luther took a breath like he was going to start speaking:

“We were practicing Klaus’ levitation. He went too high and lost—”

“Yeah, I that much out myself,” Diego snapped. “Tell us why you decided to lie.”

Luther sighed and passed his hand over his face. “Well, Diego, I called you first—”

“I don’t care about you lying to us nearly as much as I care about you lying to  _ Klaus,” _ Diego pushed.

“We can worry about the lying to us part later,” Dave said. “First explain why you did this to Klaus.”

“Right. Um, well, I was going to tell him the truth about everything. But then he asked me if we were a happy family, and his eyes were big and wide and innocent, and he’d been so… so untroubled up until then, and I didn’t want to ruin that. Like, after he hit his head, Klaus was suddenly walking around without all of that built up pain, you know?” Luther took in a shaky breath before continuing:

“Klaus kept asking me all of these questions about  _ everything. _ He was building is entire world off my words. When I realized that, I realized I had the chance to fix everything that happened to Klaus. You guys would have done the same thing.”

Before either could protest, Luther took another breath and kept talking.

“I mean, Diego, you know how rough some parts of our childhood were. And you’ve both seen how much Klaus’ past hurts him. Why would I put all of that back on him, instead of letting him live a normal, happy life?”

Diego and Dave both launched into their own separate rants, each talking over each other and aggressively gesturing. Diego backed off first, though, letting his sibling’s fiancé’s words cut through first. Dave nodded at Diego before starting over.

“How is he supposed to live ‘a normal, happy life’ cut off from his fiancé and most of his family? How the fuck is he supposed to have a ‘normal, happy life’ when he doesn’t know what his own normal is?” 

Luther opened his mouth, presumably to defend himself, but Dave quickly cut him off.

_ “Stum d’peh!” _ He stepped towards Luther, pointing a threatening finger in his direction. “How dare you put him on any sort of drugs without his permission? Especially pain meds? After everything Klaus has been through, everything he’s accomplished, who the fuck do you think you are to force him off the wagon? Fuck you!”

“Force him off the— I was helping him!” Luther yelped. He made a move like he was going to stand up, but when he caught the looks that Dave and Diego sent him, he quickly aborted it. “Sure, I didn’t know that it would block his powers at first, but at the end of the day, it helped! Now, not only is he not in pain, but he also isn’t distressed, like what his powers were doing to him before!”

“Oh, you want to talk  _ distressed?” _ Dave seethed. “How about this: I spent most of my morning helping Klaus off a panic attack, which he only got because he found out about what  _ you _ did to him!”

Luther faltered. “You… you told him?”

“Of course we fucking told him!” Dave threw his hands up into the air.

“You don’t get to control Klaus’ reality,” Diego interjected. “You don’t get to decide what his past is, just because you feel sad that we were treated like shit as kids.”

“I—”

“‘You—’” Diego said in an exaggerated tone, mocking Luther’s shock and horror. “Shut  _ up, _ man! You opening your mouth and saying the wrong shit is what got you into this mess! So, for once in your life, shut the hell up! Y-You  _ prick! _ ”

As much as Diego would have loved to continue the angry rant he’d just started, he fell silent at the sound of a new person entering the room. Three pairs of eyes whipped to the door, all fearing that it was Klaus. There was a collective sigh of relief when they saw Vanya, though it was short lived when they registered the look on her face.

“I came over to drop off some brownies Daisy and I made. I heard shouting. What—What’s going on here?” Though her voice was quiet, it spoke volumes above the angry shouting that was still crackling in all their ears.

“You were right,” Diego said, tilting his chin up. “Klaus hit his head, and Luther lied about it. He lied to all of us.”

“Klaus has amnesia,” Dave explained through clenched teeth.

Vanya frowned and looked at the scene before her: Luther practically cowering in a chair away from Diego and Dave, who practically towered over him. “Does Klaus know you’re doing this?” she finally asked.

“What—”

Dave’s posture lost almost all of its fight and anger. “No,” he almost whispered.

“Alright, then we save this for another date, when everybody is involved, alright? For now, Diego, call Eudora and have her pick you up—”

“But I—”

Vanya held up her hand. “You should never drive when you’re this angry. Go wait in the kitchen. Dave, go back to Klaus. I get the feeling he needs you right now.”

Diego huffed and walked out of the greenhouse. Dave started to follow, but he paused right before he stepped out, and turned to lock eyes with Luther. “Klaus’ engagement ring is missing,” he said stiffly. “I’m guessing you had something to do with it?”

Luther nodded, biting his lips together. “It’s in the top drawer of my nightstand.”

Dave nodded once before spinning on his heel and marching out of the greenhouse.

* * *

The cold silver was quick to warm in Dave’s palm after he retrieved it from the drawer. He carefully wiped off any amount of dust it collected in its neglect with his forefinger, then held it tight in his hand as he made his way back to Klaus’ room. The slight weight of the engagement made all of the stress Dave felt start to melt away.

“Hey, honeybee,” he said with a warm smile as he entered the room.

Klaus looked up from the portrait he was sketching, an instant smile lighting up his features. “Hey! I was wondering where you’d gone off to.”

“Just taking care of some things,” Dave said, sitting on the bed next to Klaus. His smile faded slightly and he looked down at his hands, nerves suddenly taking hold of his train of thought. “Hey, um, so before all of this happened, we got engaged. I found the ring, but I know since you lost a lot of your memories of us, you might not want—”

“Oh my god, shut up,” the other breathed, which was Dave’s only warning before he suddenly had an armful of Klaus.

Dave made a small, happy noise into the kiss. He brought one hand up to cup Klaus’ cheek, and used the other to catch Klaus’ left hand and slip the engagement ring onto his finger. The art supplies forgotten, Klaus snuck a glance at the ring, then shifted his weight to deepen the kiss.

* * *

“Hey, baby.”

The soft voice snapped Diego out of his anxious swirl of thoughts. Without a single word, he launched himself into Eudora’s arms and pulled her close.

“That kind of day?” Eudora asked gently, reaching up and stroking the hair at the back of Diego’s head without breaking the hug.

Diego nodded mutely, holding onto her tighter.

“Alright, lovey. Let’s get you home. Rosa’s sleeping over at Allison’s, so it’ll just be me and you tonight, yeah?”

He nodded again, and let her take him to the car.

Once she got them home and got Diego tucked into bed, she decided something. This family’s greatest downfall was its lack of communication, and with something as big as this situation, they needed to communicate _ soon _ before something gets out of hand. After checking again that Diego was alright, she grabbed her phone, turned it on, and dialed Allison’s number.

* * *

"It's a family emergency. I—No, I can't get away. It's... Yeah. Yes. Thank you, Sergeant. I'll make it up to you. Thank you." Dave hung up, then turned back to Klaus with a smile. “I can stay, baby!”

Klaus’ face broke out into a grin, which Dave could swear lit up the entire room. “Yay!” he cheered. “How shall we celebrate?”

“Well…” Dave looked about the room. When he found what he was looking for, he quickly walked over to it. “Have you listened to any of these records lately?”

Klaus’ curls bounced around when he shook his head.

“Then that’s how we’re going to celebrate. I’m going to put on this Doors record.” He held it up triumphantly. “Then, we’re going to cuddle on that bed of yours, and I’ll read to you. Sound alright?”

“Sounds  _ perfect.” _

* * *

Ben peeked his head into the room. Klaus was using Dave as a pillow. He looked safe and happy in Dave’s arms, staring off into space as Dave read from a book he held up behind Klaus’ back. Ben smiled to himself. Things were going to be okay. Klaus wanted to be off the meds, which meant that soon, he’d be able to see him again. And when he did, they could—

Ben’s smile fell.  _ What if Klaus doesn’t remember me? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next Saturday, when Eudora confiscates some butter knives and Klaus gets hit in the face by a water bottle.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 COmments and kudos are much appreciated!
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
>   * Motek: Hebrew for "sweetheart"
>   * Stum d’peh: Hebrew/Yiddish for "shut up"
>   * Shoutout to my good friend for helping me translate all of the Hebrew and Yiddish stuff! Her tumblr is [@jlmarch](https://jlmarch.tumblr.com/) and her AO3 is [EmAndFandems](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmAndFandems/pseuds/EmAndFandems)! She writes some fantastic stuff for TUA and Good Omens, so please go check her out!
> 



	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eudora confiscates some butter knives and Klaus gets hit in the face by a water bottle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My beta yelled at me for this one :)

“Wait, wait, wait,” Allison spoke above the sudden uproar of chatter from the family. “So you’re telling me that Klaus has had amnesia this whole time?”

“Yes,” Diego sighed, connecting eyes with Vanya for a moment. His fingers twitched towards the knife that was laying on the napkin before him, but instead of fidgeting with it, he grabbed Eudora’s hand and held onto it tight. “Remember that phone call Luther made back in November? That’s when it happened.”

“How dare you—” Five suddenly reached out and grabbed a butter knife, then spatial jumped to right beside Luther, who immediately stood up and backed away.

Klaus flinched back in Dave’s lap, which was reason enough for Dave to step in. “Everybody needs to just calm down,” he said. He didn’t need to yell—people always listened when he used his drill sergeant voice, even if they had no military experience. Klaus shivered and leaned in closer to Dave. “Five, stop threatening Luther with a knife. Luther, get back in your seat. We’re all going to talk about this like adults. Got it?” He made eye contact with each person sitting at the table, all of whom nodded.

“Mom, could you…?” Diego motioned to the group. In the sudden quiet, they could hear Rosa and Claire giggling in the adjacent room. Diego breathed a sigh of relief, glad that they didn’t notice the high tension between the adults.

Grace smiled and nodded, folding her hands in front of her. “When Klaus was unconscious, Luther started giving him pills to get ahead of the pain.” There were more shouts, protests, and groans, but with one stern look from Dave, they quieted to mumbles. “There was an unintended side effect: they canceled out Klaus’ powers.”

Vanya let out a shaky breath and put her head in her hands. Daisy reached out and rubbed her back sympathetically.

“Wait, is that why we weren’t allowed to mention our powers when we came over?” Allison asked, shooting a look at Luther.

“That does explain a lot of things,” Five said, his lip curling.

“That’s sick,” Allison said with a grimace as she leaned back in her chair. 

“I was just trying to—”

In a flash, there was a butter knife in Diego’s hand and pointing at Luther.  _ “You _ don’t get to talk,” he snapped. Eudora gently placed her hand on Diego’s arm, and he immediately handed her the butter knife. Then, she got up and started collecting all of the knives that were laid out on the table, seemingly deciding that the Hargreeves family, a heated discussion, and sharp objects was not a good combination.

Daisy rapped her knuckles on the table, and all eyes went to her. “I think we should let him tell us his reasoning,” she signed, sending Diego a harsh look when he made a noise of frustration.

Luther looked between the two, not sure if he should speak or not.

“Go ahead,” Dave said roughly, though the hard look that was accompanied with it made Luther swallow nervously. Dave drew shapes on Klaus’ legs with his fingers to help keep him calm.

“Alright,” Luther said eventually, and nodded. “I, erm, well, when Klaus fell and hit his head, he got knocked out. And I figured that if—when he woke up, he’d have a really bad headache, because he fell from really high up, so I went into the medicine cabinet and found some pills. I managed to give them to him when he was out, and when he woke up, I kept giving them to him. I-I didn’t know that they would get rid of Klaus’ powers.” It was at this point that Luther looked at Klaus for the first time in the conversation, and it was only for a split second. “But when I found out that they did, I thought that it would be a good thing.”

“How the fuck—”

“Let him speak,” Vanya said, sounding uncharacteristically stern as she shot a look at Five.

Luther chewed on his lip, waiting for any objections. When there weren’t any, he continued. “Klaus was always so terrified of his powers, and that was when he had his memories. I thought that if he was trying to both learn about the world  _ and _ have to deal with his powers, well, I didn’t think he would be able to manage it.”

Dave wrapped his arms tight around Klaus’ middle.

“Tell them about the other part,” Diego said stiffly, rubbing his thumb along Eudora’s hand under the table.

Luther closed his eyes and sighed. “I lied to Klaus about our past.”

Klaus stiffened in Dave’s lap, his pulse skyrocketing.  _ What? _

“I told him we were happy kids, and that everything was fine.” He looked down at his hands in his lap.

Klaus shook his head and turned back to Dave. “Can we go?” he whispered quietly, trying his best not to listen to what Luther was saying.

“Yeah, of course, honeybee.” Dave looked up to the others. “Hey, guys, Klaus and I are going to go upstairs. You can keep talking without us.”

Five scoffed. “So you’re just going to leave in the middle of this conversation? Klaus, this conversation is  _ about _ you. You can’t just—”

“I said,” Dave said, his eyes dark, “Klaus and I are going upstairs. Let’s go, yekirì.”

Five shut his mouth, but narrowed his eyes.

Klaus stayed quiet as they left the room. He almost tripped, his legs feeling almost numb. 

As soon as they were out of eyeshot, Dave pulled Klaus off by the wall. “You okay, sweetheart? I know that was a lot back there.”

He nodded mutely, holding onto Dave. “I just want to go to our room,” he mumbled. “Can you carry me? My legs feel weird and wobbly.”

“Of course, sweetheart,” Dave replied, trying his best to hide his worried frown at that. He bent down and placed one arm behind Klaus’ knees, then stood up and swept his feet out from under him. Klaus let himself go boneless in Dave’s strong hold, his head resting on Dave’s shoulder. Like this, Klaus felt safe. Like this, nothing else mattered. It was just him and Dave, and whatever Luther may or may not have done wasn’t important. Just Dave. He took a deep breath and let warm comfort wash over him.

Dave carried him through the house, a rather grim expression on his face. He nearly tripped and fell when he heard a small voice as he was about to go up the steps. 

“Uncle Dave, is Titi Klaus alright?” Rosa asked, blinking up at the couple.

“He’s okay,” Dave said softly, smiling down at her. “He’s just feeling a little tired.”

Klaus shot them an odd smile. “Yeah, we’re gonna go take a nap so I can feel all better.”

Claire ran up to them and thrust a piece of paper at them. Klaus reached down and took it, trying to decipher what the drawing was of. “My mommy told me that you have bad dreams sometimes, so I drew Cousin Rosa and I fighting the monsters and saving you.”

Klaus’ mouth fell open. He tapped the back of Dave’s neck, and Dave let him down. Klaus kneeled on the ground and pulled the two little girls into a big hug. “Thank you,” he murmured. “You two are so sweet.”

“Good job taking care of your Titi,” Dave said gently, tousling the two girls’ hair.

They gasped and squealed in protest, pulling away. “Go take a nap,” Claire said, doing her best to sound like she was scolding them despite her smile.

“Yeah!” Rosa chimed in, crossing her arms and furrowing her eyebrows.

Dave chuckled and straightened up. “We’re going, we’re going. Come on, Klaus.” Dave picked Klaus up again and carried him up the stairs. As soon as they got into Klaus’ room, he placed the picture on the nightstand and gently set him down on the bed, and pressed a kiss onto his forehead. “I love you, sweetheart.”

Klaus smiled and pulled Dave into bed with him, curling up in Dave’s arms. “I love you too, sunshine.”

* * *

In the next few weeks, Dave, Diego and Grace teamed up to help get Klaus off the pain pills. It was difficult, to say the least. The only one of them who had seen Klaus go through a full withdrawal was Ben, and he was still frustratingly absent. Still, though, they’d had a little bit of experience, and Grace was a wealth of knowledge, so they held on. Dave stayed by Klaus’ side the entire time, holding him when the cravings got bad, putting cold rags on his forehead when the hot flashes were too much, holding his hair back whenever he got sick.

Klaus started acting more like himself. Vanya observed it seemed a lot like the pills she was on. So, she joined in on the group of people helping Klaus out. Five did a lot of research, and as a team, they all helped Klaus deal with the pain and the emotions that all resurfaced now that he was off the pills.

The ghosts came back first. It was the middle of the night, when Dave was suddenly woken up by Klaus screaming and thrashing. 

“Hey, baby, sweetheart,” Dave started whispering immediately. “Klaus, wake up; you’re alright.”

Klaus’ eyes snapped open, his mouth frozen in a silent scream. His eyes connected with something across the room, and that scream became an audible yelp as he jumped back in the bed, pressing his back against Dave’s chest. “No, no, please.”

Dave wrapped his arms around Klaus and held him tight, knowing that the pressure always worked to calm him down. “Is it the ghosts?”

His response was a terrified nod, Klaus’ gaze still locked to a point in the room that was invisible to Dave.

“Tell me about it?” he offered. Usually, if Dave could get Klaus talking about the ghosts, then they were easier to handle.

“Go  _ away,” _ Klaus shouted. For a second, Dave’s heart leapt into his throat. Was Klaus talking to him? What did he do wrong? But all of his worries faded when Klaus relaxed into Dave and snuggled his face into the pillow they were sharing.

“Uh, Klaus? What was that?”

“I was getting rid of the ghosts,” Klaus said nonchalantly, like he didn’t just do something that he’d never truly gotten the hang of.

“What? Like, all of them?”

Klaus hummed and looked back out into the room. “All of them, except for one.” He gasped. “Is that Ben? I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Ben’s heart dropped. Klaus didn’t recognize him.

“Klaus, we’re best friends,” Ben said carefully. “Do you really not remember me?”

“Well,” Klaus said, adjusting how he was laying and frowning, “if you were watching me this whole time, you’d know I have this little thing called amnesia. So, no, I don’t remember you.” He tilted his head to the side. “How are we best friends if you died, like, a really long time ago?”

Ben could see Dave wilt sympathetically behind Klaus.

“I followed you around after I died, Klaus. I took care of you. It was the two of us against the world.”

Klaus frowned, starting to fidget with the blankets. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.”

* * *

“Oh, come on, Diego,” Allison sighed, staring at the knife that had been embedded high into the wall of the main room for what must have been the thousandth time. “You know for a fact that those are hard to get down, especially when they’re  _ there.” _ She pointed at where the new addition to there wall was, way out of anybody’s reach.

“I don’t know why you guys keep acting surprised,” Eudora said with a shrug. “I mean, you know he just keeps doing this to piss you guys off.” She sent a light glare towards her husband, who smiled in response.

“Very cute,” Luther said, rolling his eyes. “Well, how the fuck are we supposed to get it down?”

Klaus was walking on the second floor when he heard the conversation. He looked over the bannister into the main room below. It took him a few seconds to realize what they were talking about, but as soon as he found the knife, he let out a snort. “Great one, Diego.”

“Hey, Klaus, can you reach that from up there? Maybe, like, stick your arm through the spindles?” Allison called up, setting a hand on her hip.

“He can’t reach that, that’s way too far down,” Dave said, frowning slightly and placing his hand on Klaus’ lower back.

“Wait, I think I can…” Klaus leaned over the edge of the bannister. Then, he started to tilt. All at once, everybody rushed forward—Dave to grab the back of Klaus’ shirt, and the people on the ground floor to try and catch him—but they were all too late. Klaus’ shirt slipped out of Dave’s grasp and he tumbled off the second floor.

Well, “tumbled” didn’t exactly describe it. Klaus slowly flipped and righted himself, then floated down, plucked the knife out of the wall, and rose back up to safely touch down on the second floor, right next to Dave.

“Elokim yishmor,” Dave breathed, and rushed forward to quickly pull Klaus into a tight hug. The sudden movement knocked the knife out of Klaus’ hand, and it flew off the side of the balcony and embedded itself into the hardwood floor below.

“Fucking hell,” Diego shouted from the ground floor. “Watch it!”

* * *

_ “But thy eternal summer shall not fade / Nor lose possession—” _ Dave scoffed and looked down at Klaus, who was tucked into his side. “Could you please be still, I can’t read with you moving and shaking the book all the time.”

Klaus sighed and looked up at Dave with puppy eyes. “But I’m  _ thirsty.” _

“Then get some water,” Dave replied in the same tone.

“But I’m warm, and comfy, and if I go  _ out there _ then I won’t be.”

Dave threw a glance out into the bedroom. “Sweetheart, there’s literally a full water bottle right over there. You could get up, get the water, and be back in bed in under three seconds.”

“But  _ Dave,” _ Klaus whined.

If he was honest, Dave didn’t want Klaus to get up either. Sure, his throat was getting a bit dry from all of the reading aloud he was doing, but the feeling of Klaus’ skin—finally warmed from the amount of time they’d been cuddled together under the covers—against his, the comforting smell of Klaus’ hair, and the feeling of Klaus’ breath dancing across Dave’s chest wasn’t something he was willing to give up for something as insignificant as water.

“Sweetheart, if you want the water, you’re going to have to get it. It’s not just going to get up and walk over here on its own.”

Klaus sighed dramatically. Like he was using the Force in  _ Star Wars _ —a movie that Ben and Diego introduced him to a few days before—he reached out a hand and directed it towards the water bottle. “Oh, source of life, come to be so I may relish in your refreshing not-taste.”

Dave was about to let out a laugh when—

_ Whack. _

_ “Uh.” _ Dave stared at the plastic bottle that had just hit Klaus in the face, and was resting on Dave’s chest.

“What the fuck,” Klaus whispered.

* * *

“Klaus.”

The person in question looked up from the portrait he was drawing. “What’s up, Di?”

“How are you doing?”

Klaus shrugged. “Fine, I guess. Why?” He glanced over to the ghost that had been sadly following him around, Ben, and sighed.

“Well,” Diego frowned, “you have a lot of reasons to feel really shitty right now. I mean, Luther lied to you about your past, you’re re-adapting to all of your powers, and you’re getting sober again.”

Klaus winced and chewed on his lip. He set his pencil down. “I mean… you have a point. It sucks ass not knowing who I am, even though you guys are trying to help me. It’s a lot. But also, like, my powers are  _ really _ easy to control whenever Dave is around. Apparently I have telekinesis, which is really cool! See?” He flicked his finger upwards and the pencil started hovering above the sketchbook. It shook for a second and dropped back down, making Klaus frown. “Well, like I said, it’s easier with Dave around.”

“Hey, where is Dave, anyway?”

“He went to the store, I think,” Klaus said, scrunching his nose up.

Diego smiled softly. “I’m glad that he’s helping you.”

“Oh, come on. You’ve been helping me too! You’re the one that’s been telling me all about my past and stuff.”

“Yeah, about that. How are you holding up?”

He shrugged again, picking up his pencil and continuing his sketch of Dave. “It’s weird, not knowing what’s real, and what isn’t.” He started slowly, but gained steam. “I’m second-guessing everything he told me. My whole world feels like it’s been moved ten feet to the left. I only have a few things that I know for sure, and I have to base everything off that. And  _ still _ …” Klaus trailed off.

“Still what?”

“It’s stupid,” Klaus scoffed.

“Come on, K.” Diego lightly punched Klaus’ arm—the one that he wasn’t drawing with. “It’s impossible for you to sound stupid to me.”

Klaus sighed and ducked his head, staring intently at what he was drawing. “I still want to make-up with him, and everything.” At Diego’s stunned silence, he continued. “I mean, he’s my  _ brother. _ I don’t want to hate him for the rest of my life. I don’t want this whole family to start arguing every time the both of us are in the room.”

Diego nodded slowly. “Alright, we can—we can try and work it out. If that’s really what you want.”

“I do.”

* * *

Klaus didn’t go out in public very often after he hit his head. Life in the academy was overwhelming enough without dealing with the busy streets and loud strangers. But he never was good at staying in one place. As soon as he felt ready, he decided it would be nice to take a walk, so he could experience the cool winter air. He wrapped himself up in one of Dave’s coats, sent a smile to Ben, and stepped out into the night.

The air was crisp as he walked, looking up at the tall buildings and watching all the passersby. He bobbed his head to the music that was pouring in through his headphones and smiled to himself. He wanted to let his feet lift off from the ground and soar through the air, but he wouldn’t be able to without drawing attention. Instead, he just let himself bounce a little when he walked, his hands settled in his warm pockets, and he smiled.

“Oi, is that who I think that is?” A voice rang out, cutting through Klaus’ music. Still, though, he kept walking. “Hey, I think it is! Hargreeves! Klaus!”

“Fuck, Klaus, you need to go,” Ben said, suddenly appearing.

Klaus’ head snapped up and he pulled his headphones off. “Wh…?”

“Man, I haven’t seen you in forever! I thought you up and got arrested for good, or something.”

“I’m sorry, I think you have the—”

“Klaus, leave.”

“Come on, dude, I’ll give you a special deal, since I missed your mug so much. Come on, half price.”

“I don’t know what you—”

Suddenly, the man’s face twisted into something horrible and cruel. “But no, I wouldn’t do that. You know why? Cause your ass still owes me. You know how much?”

“No, I—”

“Of course you don’t,” the man sneered. “You piece of shit. You worthless, good for nothing piece of garbage.” He stepped forward threateningly, a knife suddenly in his hand.

Instantly, Klaus’ hands were up in a defensive position and he was backing away. “Woah, woah. Why don’t we sit down and talk about this like adults, instead of bringing in the sharp and pointy things?”

A smile curled at the corners of the man’s lips. “Hey, I like that pretty ring on your finger. How about you give it to me, and I won’t beat you within an inch of your life.”

All the blood drained out of Klaus’ face. That was his engagement ring.  _ Dave _ gave that to him. He couldn’t just give it up. “Listen, I have no idea who you are or what you’re talking about.”

“Klaus!” Ben tried again, frantically motioning for Klaus to get away. He caught Klaus’ eye, who nodded quickly.

“This has been a lovely conversation, but I have to admit, I hated every second of it,” Klaus said, laughing lightly. “I should head out.” He waved, then turned around. Next thing he knew, the world went black.

* * *

“There he is!”

“Holy shit.”

Ben’s head snapped up from where he was looking at his sibling. He knew it. He knew that Diego would be able to track Klaus down. Trailing behind his brother was Dave, Vanya, and Eudora. As distraught as they looked, Ben knew things would be okay. Things would be okay, even if the engagement ring was gone from Klaus’ finger. Things would be okay, even if Klaus’ blood was forming a small puddle on the black pavement. Things would be okay, even if Klaus hadn’t woken up. Ben knew so, because they had to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next Saturday, for when Dave remembers stuff and Luther calls him “sir.”
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 Comments and kudos are much appreciated!
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
>   * Yekirì: Hebrew for "my dear"
>   * Elokim yishmor: Hebrew for "God will save" but Dave's really saying (in the words of my EmAndFandems) "God fucking save your ass because I'm going to kill you if you die"
>   * Yes, that was Dave reading Shakespeare's Sonnet 18! Good eye :)
>   * Thank to my good friend for helping me translate all of the Hebrew and Yiddish stuff! Her tumblr is [@jlmarch](https://jlmarch.tumblr.com/) and her AO3 is [EmAndFandems](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmAndFandems/pseuds/EmAndFandems)! She writes some fantastic stuff for TUA and Good Omens, so please go check her out!
> 



	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dave remembers stuff and Luther calls him “sir.”

“Why didn’t you take him to a hospital?” Luther asked sternly, his voice hushed as if Klaus was awake and could hear the conversation they were having around his hospital bed.

Dave directed his red-rimmed eyes upwards from where they were focused on Klaus’ bruised face. “What do you mean?” he asked with a frown, his thumb no longer tracing patterns into Klaus’ hand.

“This is the second time he’s gotten in a coma after hitting his head,” Luther said.

“He didn’t hit his head, he was knocked out,” Diego snapped before Dave could reply. “He was jumped.”

“Yeah, and whose fault was that?” Luther retorted. “Why did you guys let him leave?”

_ “Let him—” _ Dave cried, tightening his grip on Klaus’ hand. “He’s not some animal that you keep locked up in a cage! He’s  _ Klaus! _ He doesn’t stay behind closed doors, he doesn’t color within the lines. He goes where he wants, when he wants.” Before Luther could respond, Dave shut him down by saying, “And we brought him to the infirmary instead of a hospital because Klaus hates hospitals, which you would know if you paid attention to him, for once, instead of controlling and manipulating him into being your perfect little sibling.”

Vanya shot a look at Daisy and shook her head before piping up. “If you two are going to argue, do it out in the hallway, please. You know Klaus doesn’t like it when you get angry, Dave.”

Immediately, Dave turned to Klaus and started brushing his thumb back and forth over where Klaus’ engagement ring was. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if Diego hadn’t called in the mugging and if the man hadn’t been caught within the hour. He couldn’t leave Klaus’ side, and yet the thought of that horrible man having possession of  _ their _ engagement ring after doing  _ that  _ was enraging enough to make him want to take up Diego’s previous occupation and start cracking some skulls. He never would, though. Not if it hurt Klaus like he heard it hurt Eudora.

“You’re right,” he mumbled softly, scanning Klaus’ face for any signs of distress he may have caused. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disheartened when he didn’t find any change. “Sorry, muffin,” he whispered to Klaus, reaching out and brushing an invisible strand of hair off Klaus’ forehead. He felt guilty that there was a possibility that he made Klaus nervous.

Suddenly—Dave wasn’t sure if it was the stress, or seeing Klaus all bandaged up in a hospital bed—Dave got an odd feeling, one he only got right before a flashback.  _ Fuck. _

* * *

_ Dave wasn’t sure of exactly  _ what _ was said, but it had rendered Klaus mute, and just that it was big enough to set off alarm bells. All Dave knew was that when he walked into their shared tent, Klaus was holding Dave’s jacket close to his chest, and he was staring at one blank spot on the inside of the tent. _

_ “Klaus?” The person in question’s eyes snapped to the speaker. They looked blank, empty, dead. Not like Klaus. He lowered his voice and sat down at Klaus’ side. “Hey, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” _

_ Klaus shook his head. It took a trained eye to see the minute quiver of Klaus’ lower lip, but Dave could spot it from a mile a way. _

_ Dave only shot a glance towards the entrance of the tent before he wrapped his arms around Klaus and pulled him close. “Is it the ghosts?” His answer was a silent shake of Klaus’ head. It took a few tries, until Dave realized what it was. “It was Don, wasn’t it?” For a few moments, all Klaus did was curl up tighter, until he finally nodded. “Son of a bitch.” _

_ The next thing Dave remembered was Speck holding him back. He was yelling curses and spitting at Don, who was looking more smug than ever. _

_ “Dave.”  _

_ A relatively quiet voice tore the shouts from Dave’s throat and rendered him silent. Dave looked back to see who it was that spoke, even though he already knew. As soon as Dave’s eyes settled on Klaus, heavy guilt took hold of his heart. Klaus was looking at him, his eyes wide and fearful. He had scared Klaus so much he was shaking.  _ He _ did that. At that moment, Dave vowed to keep his anger as far away from Klaus as possible. _

* * *

Dave frowned and blinked quickly when he realized he had just zoned out, or had a flashback, or  _ whatever _ that was. He looked up and around the room to find that some of the others had left. None of them seemed to notice that Dave had just been thousands of miles and half a century away.  _ Weird. _

The room was dead silent. Everybody was varying levels of checked out at that point. Luther was sleeping, Eudora was staring off into space, Vanya was on her phone, and Dave was sure Ben was reading by that point. He turned and looked back at Klaus. Even under all of those bandages, he looked so peaceful.

* * *

_ Peaceful was not a word Dave would have ever used to describe Klaus. Usually, he was a massive ball of energy, a tornado with legs, chaos and mania personified. He did things without thinking beforehand and didn’t seem to be bothered by the effects.  _

_ At least, that’s what Dave thought at first. As he got to know Klaus better, knew all of that was a front. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was a front for, yet, but he knew that whatever it was, it was something big and dark. Dave hated thinking about anything like that plaguing Klaus’ life. He could see it sometimes. During the quiet moments, when Klaus thought nobody was watching, all of that joy would leave Klaus’ eyes. He looked, for lack of a better word, haunted. Dave could swear that sometimes he would see Klaus flinch or mumble under his breath. And when Klaus slept. It was normal for men to wake up screaming, but never this early on in their tour, and never that violently. _

_ But this time, Klaus was peaceful. That was the only way Dave could describe him. They had been smoking behind one of the jeeps, passing the joint back and forth as they shared stories of their pasts. It got late. Klaus fell asleep with his head on Dave’s shoulder.  _

_ Admittedly, Dave should have woken Klaus up and gotten him to the tent, but he couldn’t deny the way his heart did somersaults at the way they were positioned. He could feel Klaus’ gentle breath against his skin, and Dave could have sworn he’d died and gone to Heaven. _

_ The main reason why Dave didn’t move them, Dave told himself, was because this was the longest Klaus had gone without crying out in his sleep. It wasn’t because of how much Dave had craved this amount of touch from Klaus the second he’d laid eyes on him. It was for Klaus, not for him. _

* * *

_ It was the night after coming back from R&R. Dave’s mind was still reeling from everything that happened. He and Klaus kissed, and they shared a bed, and they— _

_ Dave cleared his throat. He probably shouldn’t think about that when they were around all of the others. _

_ As they set their cots up, Klaus shot Dave a sad look, one that matched exactly how Dave felt. In the hotel, they could share a bed. Dave could hold Klaus close, something that apparently was a benefit for both.  _

_ That first morning they woke up together, both feeling equally bewildered. Neither had gotten a nightmare that night, which was something they thought they’d never have again. Dave couldn’t help but think back to that night all those weeks before when Klaus fell asleep on Dave’s shoulder. Klaus didn’t have a nightmare then, either. It was like they chased each other’s nightmares away. _

_ It was going to be hard to go to sleep alone, after getting a taste of what they could have. _

_ “What if we pushed our cots closer together?” Klaus whispered, hiding it by loudly shaking his blanket out. “Like, just a little bit, so we’re closer?” _

_ Dave shot him a smile, and they started doing just that. _

_ Later that night, after lights out had been called and after Klaus had drifted off, Dave was still wide awake. A slight movement from his right caught his attention, and he turned his head even though he wouldn’t be able to see. He could hear a soft whimper from his side, and Dave instantly knew what was wrong. Klaus was having another nightmare. Fuck. _

_ “Hey,” he wanted to say. He wanted to say a lot of things. He wanted to tell Klaus how much he loved him, and he wanted to remind him that once his tour was up, they were going to buy a little cabin in the woods, where they wouldn’t have to hide anything from anyone. But he couldn’t. Instead, he reached a hand out and found Klaus’ hand. Klaus relaxed slightly.  _

_ Klaus slept through the night. _

* * *

Dave shifted and squeezed Klaus’ hand. “I’m here now,” he whispered to him. “I’m here, and I’m never leaving. I promise.”

* * *

_ Klaus had almost gotten killed, and now he was in the med tent, and it was Dave’s fault. He should have been watching. It was his job to watch Klaus, and he didn’t, and now Dave wasn’t even allowed to go in and see him. He— _

* * *

Dave quickly shook his head. If he was going to have flashbacks, he was going to do whatever it too to make sure it wasn’t going to be about that.

* * *

_ Dave wasn’t sure exactly how Klaus had managed to, but somehow he convinced Sarge to give them both watch duty at the same time. It was perfect. They were passing through an area that had seen no action in months, and there wasn’t really any need to have anybody on watch. Still, though, there they were laying in a clearing, guns forgotten at their sides. _

_ “This is really nice, sweetheart,” Dave said softly, playing with Klaus’ hair as he held him close. _

_ Klaus hummed his agreement. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many stars.” _

_ “That’s what you get for being from the big city,” Dave said teasingly. “Back home, my siblings and I used to stay up on the roof and look at the stars just like this. Only…” He frowned. “I mean, these are different stars. But still.” _

_ “My little small town boy,” Klaus said softly, turning to face Dave. “We’re going to get out of here soon. I promise.” _

_ Dave smiled and brought a hand up to cup Klaus’ cheek. “I know we will,  _ neshama sheli.” _ He brought Klaus close and kissed him. “I love you,” he murmured. _

_ “I love you too,” Klaus whispered before wrapping his arms around Dave and deepening the kiss. _

* * *

Dave squeezed his eyes shut, like he was trying to manually pull his mind away from where it was leading. He didn’t want to think about that, especially since it was getting too close to an event that he definitely didn’t want to think about. He didn’t want to think about any of it period. He wanted to have Klaus there and with him, not in his memories. 

He could feel himself slipping into another one, and he frowned. He didn’t want to be then, he wanted to be now. He wanted to be—

* * *

_ “Dave.” The name ripped from Klaus’ voice, chased by a harsh sob, as he clutched Dave’s body close. _

_ He wanted to comfort Klaus. Klaus was hurt, and it was something about him, but for some reason Dave couldn’t speak, or pull Klaus tight, or play with his hair. Everything felt so heavy. He couldn’t move. _

_ “I love you,” Klaus whispered, sounding panicked. “I love you so much, okay? I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t take you with me. This is all my fault.” _

_ Dave frowned.  _ Take me where?

_ “I love you,” he tried to say, but it came out as weird gargles. Klaus didn’t respond. _

* * *

Dave was going to be sick. He blinked quickly, trying to chase away the tears that were in his eyes. He didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to think about how their situations were flipped; how Dave was the one trying to keep Klaus from slipping away. He didn’t want to think about how pale Klaus was.

* * *

_ Both hands flew to Klaus’ mouth and he nodded. “Yes,” he said, his voice strangled with tears. _

_ Dave stood up and pulled Klaus in close. “Really?” _

_ Klaus nodded again and laughed, wiping his tears away. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you. There’s nobody else in the world I’d rather be with than you.” _

* * *

“Dave, you alright?”

Dave snapped his head up and looked at who spoke: Luther. “What?” he asked, frankly still a little shaken up from his mind ping-ponging through time.

“I asked if you were alright,” Luther replied, laughing slightly.

“What kind of a question is that?” Dave snapped. Alright, maybe he was a little on edge. “Of course I’m not alright; my fiancé’s in a fucking coma!”

“Dave,” Vanya said gently.

“No, I’m not staying calm about this. Klaus won’t respond. You know why? Because this is the second time he’s gotten into a coma, which means he probably won’t wake up.” Dave’s breath caught in his throat. Saying it out loud made it so much worse. “Fuck,” he said, his voice cracking. 

“How about we talk about this in the hallway, yeah?” Luther said, shooting a look at the others.

“No! I’m not leaving him.”

“Dave,” Eudora said gently, “it’ll be alright.”

Dave shook his head. “No, there’s no way I’m letting him out of my sight. Not after what happened last time.”

“Last time?” Luther asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“Yeah. When you drugged Klaus and then lied to all of us. Remember that?”

Luther sighed. “I thought we were—”

“No.” Dave stood up and walked over to Luther, who also stood. “Don’t you dare say what I think you were about to say. Of course we aren’t over this. Klaus may be willing to forgive you, but there’s no way in hell that I’m going to just  _ let slide _ the fact that you did that to him. I can’t believe I ever trusted you. Leave, I don’t want to look at you right now.”

Luther scoffed, something that almost took Dave by surprise. All of the times before, Luther had been almost timid, always apologizing and never standing up to a fight. This time was different. “You aren’t a drill sergeant here. You don’t get to boss any of us around,  _ sir.” _

Dave straightened up at the honorific. Anybody with any ounce of military experience knew to  _ never _ call a drill sergeant “sir.” It was for officers. Calling a drill sergeant “sir” was calling them lazy, unwilling to do any sort of work. Dave worked his ass off, especially for Klaus. “Don’t you fucking  _ dare _ call me ‘sir’ ever again,” he said, his voice so deep it could have been described as a growl. He stalked close to Luther, pointing a finger at his chest. “Get the fuck out of here.”

“Luther, maybe you should…” Vanya said gently. 

Dave hadn’t even noticed that she and Eudora were leaving.  _ Good, _ Dave thought.  _ I needed some alone time with Klaus anyway. _

“No, he can’t just boss me around!”

“You aren’t exactly in a position to argue,” Eudora said.

“Get. Out.” 

Luther made a face. “Fine. But it’s because I wanted food, not because you told me to.”

When they opened the door to leave, Dave saw that the rest of the family was congregated in the hallway outside. He overheard Diego start to explain that they heard shouting, but he quickly tuned it out. That wasn’t important.

_ “Eyn imglik iz far im veynik,” _ Dave breathed, and quickly returned to his spot next to Klaus. “I’m so sorry about that, love. I hope you didn’t hear any of that.” With one hand Dave started brushing his thumb against Klaus’ forehead, and with the other he grabbed Klaus’ hand. “I’m not sure what came over me.” He rested his head on Klaus’ stomach and closed his eyes, careful to avoid the healing stab wound in his side. 

A few seconds passed in complete silence, when suddenly—

Klaus squeezed Dave’s hand.  _ Klaus squeezed Dave’s hand. _ Before Dave could even lift his head up to react, he heard a voice—the most beautiful voice he’d ever heard in his life.

“I love it when you use your sexy drill sergeant voice.”

Dave let out a shout. Within a heartbeat, he was sitting on Klaus’ bed and kissing him, framing his face with both of his hands. 

“Dave,” Klaus giggled, his voice muffled by all of the kisses. “Sunshine, I’m alright. I—”

“Klaus?”

Dave pulled back and looked back at the door to see the entire family congregated inside the room, big smiles on all their faces. 

“Hey guys,” Klaus said. He tried to sit up so he could greet everybody, but he winced and quickly gave up. “How’s it—Oh my god.”

“What? Are you okay?” Diego pushed forward to Klaus’ side.

“Huh? Oh, um, yeah I am. And I have an announcement to make.”

“What is it?” Dave was too busy scanning Klaus’ face—still beautiful despite the cuts and bruises—to pay attention to who said that.

“I remember.”

The room held its breath.

“What do you remember?” Dave asked quietly.

“Everything. Where’s…?” Klaus’ eyes scanned the room. He stopped and a slow smile grew on his lips. “Hey, Benny.”

Ben grinned. “Hi, Klaus.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in for the epilogue, when Hargreeves go to Griddy’s and Klaus orders some breakfast.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 Comments and kudos are much appreciated!
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
>   * "[Dave reached] out and [brushed] an invisible strand of hair off Klaus’ forehead." I wasn't able to include this in this fic or any of my others, but I hardcore headcanon that Dave used to do this in Vietnam as an excuse to touch Klaus more, and it became a source of comfort for the both of them.
>   * Neshama sheli: Hebrew for "my soul"
>   * Eyn imglik iz far im veynik: Yiddish curse meaning "One misfortune is too few for him."
>   * This was the last full chapter. Maybe I'm a little emotional :')
> 



	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Hargreeves family goes to Griddy’s and Klaus orders some food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last one :') come yell at me at [@dyll-pickless](https://dyll-pickless.tumblr.com/) on tumblr

Klaus was healing. Not just physically, but also emotionally. He, Luther, and the rest of the family had many heart-to-heart sessions, where they all gave their two cents. They talked about what went down before Klaus woke up, namely the whole deal about Luther “acting like a massive asshole,” as Dave put it. Luther explained that it was because of how stressed he was about Klaus being in a coma. Dave didn’t buy it, until Klaus reminded him that he wasn’t exactly a saint either.

Despite Klaus’ wishes, things were still tense with Luther. The others weren’t too great at cooling their tongues or hiding the looks they sent to Luther, and Luther got oddly defensive over the littlest things. Still, though, some things went Klaus’ way. It took a bit, but the Hargreeves family (plus the little side families that had accumulated) finally agreed to go to Griddy’s together.

Klaus was practically bouncing when he got out of Dave’s car. He danced around the car and pulled Dave into a kiss. “Thank you for doing this,” he cooed warmly.

Dave sent him a sweet smile. “It’s no problem, love. If anything happens that makes you uncomfortable, though, just tell me and we’ll leave. Got it?”

Klaus nodded and shot Dave a mock salute. “Yes sir, Dave Katz, sir.”

His response was a snort and Dave pulling him in close by his waist. “Behave, sweetheart.”

Before Klaus could talk back, there was a shout from the other side of the parking lot. “It’s the Katzes!” 

Dave looked up to grin and wave at Allison and Claire. “Hey, Allie,” he said, smoothly.

“Are we the Katzes if we haven’t gotten married yet?” Klaus mumbled under his breath. Dave chuckled and pressed a kiss to Klaus’ temple.

Allison, who didn’t hear, continued as they walked into the doughnut shop. “So how’s the new place going? Are you settling in well?”

“It’s great,” Dave replied. He cleared his throat and grabbed Klaus’ hand when Luther and the others came into view. “Really warm and homey. Klaus has already started a garden, and we have a whole wall of his paintings.”

“Klaus has a garden?” Luther asked, watching as they sat. “What sorts of things are you growing, little man?”

Klaus suddenly cleared his throat and sent Dave a warning look. Dave suspected it was because his grip was getting a little too tight. “Food, mostly. I like growing herbs and fruits and vegetables. It’ll make cooking a lot of fun, since we’ll be able to use the food we grew.”

“That sounds great,” Eudora said with a grin as she passed Rosa a red crayon so she could color on the coloring sheets that were in front of her.

“Daisy also has a garden, if you want any tips,” Vanya said proudly.

“It is mostly flowers,” Daisy signed.

“Still. It’s better than nothing.”

“Thanks, guys,” Klaus replied.

“How’s work going, Dave?” Five asked without looking up from where he was coloring the back of a sheet solid blue. Dave was surprised the crayon hadn’t snapped yet.

Dave shrugged. “I haven’t gone back yet. They don’t really need me, since it’s in the middle of a rotation. I’m thinking of asking them to put me in a position closer to home, though.” He started rubbing his thumb along Klaus’ hand. “If not, there are a few other jobs that interest me, where I won’t have to move or anything like that.”

“He’s going to help people,” Klaus said proudly.

Before anybody could follow up on what jobs Dave was interested in, the waiter showed up and asked what they wanted to drink. They all gave their orders without thinking twice about it.

“Reading anything new, Benny?” Klaus quipped, bumping his shoulder against Dave’s.

Ben straightened up in his seat. “Well, I am reading this one book that’s really good. It’s all about this scientist from an anarchocommunist moon goes to a capitalist planet, and he has to adjust to how life is different under the different system. It really makes you think about…”

Dave zoned out a little as Ben was talking, his eyes focusing on the engagement ring on Klaus’ hand, which was resting on the table. He couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed about how everything had gone down. For a few months there, Klaus legitimately had no idea of who he was. He’d lost the love of his life, his whole world, and he didn’t even know it. “Hey,” he murmured, “I love you.”

Klaus turned to look at Dave, his nose crinkling slightly with a smile. “You dork,” he said affectionately. “I love you too.”

Sure, they may have hit a rough patch, but they survived and came out stronger because of it. Now, they had a house, a wedding date, and were planning on adopting a few pets. Not to mention, Klaus was suddenly weirdly amazing at controlling his powers. (“I’m only good when you’re around,” Klaus teased one night, when Dave decided to comment on his improvement. At that moment, Dave promised that Klaus won’t ever have to worry about being apart for too long, so he’ll be able to use his powers whenever he wanted.) Dave looked at Ben, who was happily stacking sugar packets as he talked—corporeal and holding steady. Pride swelled in Dave’s chest.

“Are we ready to order?” the waiter asked brightly. Dave wondered for a moment about when the waiter had showed up, but then he realized that he was so deep in thought that it made sense that he missed the man.

Five stuck with his black coffee, Rosa and Claire both got french toast, Allison got a yogurt parfait, Klaus got—

“Eggs benedict, please.”

Dave’s blood ran cold. Diego’s butter knife clattered onto his plate. Luther spilled water down his front.

_ No, Klaus is supposed to be better. He’s supposed to hate eggs benedict. Please, don’t let him go back. I can’t lose him again. Please, I’ll do anything, _ Dave prayed silently.  _ I’ll— _

He was cut off by a high pitched snort.

“Just kidding,” Klaus giggled. “Fuck, you guys should have seen the looks on your faces.” Through giggles, Klaus turned to the waiter and ordered french toast and some bacon. 

“Jesus, Klaus,” Luther chuckled, lightly punching Klaus in the shoulder.

Dave shook his head as he laughed, squeezing Klaus’ leg. Klaus let out an undignified noise when Ben threw a sugar packet at his face. The rest of the family laughed along. Dave looked at them with slightly starry eyes, sort of in awe at how everything had panned out.

“Hey.” Dave leaned in close to Klaus’ ear and whispered quietly so the others couldn’t hear. “ _ Ani meta alecha.” _

Klaus pulled back to shoot him a knowing grin, catching on immediately. “I still don’t know what that means, but I love you too.”

_ Yeah, _ Dave thought with a smile.  _ We’re going to be just fine. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's it, huh? I'll give my whole send off speech in the author's note, but yeah. Wow.
> 
> As always, thank you so so much for reading <3 Comments and kudos are much appreciated! Tell me what you think of the ending!
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
>   * The book that Ben is reading is _The Dispossessed_ by Ursula K. LeGuin! It's a super interesting book that I highly suggest, especially if you are interested in sociology and how it's affected by different political and economic systems. I just recently suggested it to my friends Bek and Mia (ily guys) and yeah I love it so much everybody needs to read it.
>   * Ani meta alecha: Literally means "I'm dead about you" which basically means "I'm crazy about you" in Hebrew
>   * So, I'll be honest, the reason why this is so late is because I didn't want this fic to end. It has truly been my absolute favorite fic to write of all time. Thank you to my friends on tumblr, my friends on the TUA Discord, and every single person who commented on this fic. I wouldn't have been able to do this without you guys. I love you all so so much. You're amazing.
> 

> 
> So that's the end! I already have many fics in the works (plus another long fic that may or may not be a mob au) and I'm really excited to post them! Come talk to me at [@dyll-pickless](https://dyll-pickless.tumblr.com/) or just follow me on here to be notified when I post next! I love you all; thank you so so so much for reading.


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